Mary* had been married to her husband Bill* for 40 years.
She was diagnosed with number of different health problems.
None were terminal on their own, but the totality of them left her in tremendous pain.
She suffered silently every day.
At night, when painful arthritis flared up in her back and right hip, Bill woke up from her rocking and whimpering.
She would say, “Don’t listen. It’s all right. I can bear it.”
In May 2019, she developed condition that caused painful ulcers and rashes on her legs.
Home health nurses had to come three times a week to re-dress her wounds.
In July, she developed pneumonia and atrial fibrillation that required her to get a pacemaker.
Mary was on and off opioids, but never allowed to be comfortable because her doctors feared addiction.
On Jan 4, 2020, Mary went to the ER.
Doctors said she was hours from death.
Mary died on Jan 23, 2020, fading in and out of lucidity.
Before she died, she told Bill she desperately wanted to die in Friday Harbor – at home if possible.
But her doctor always said she was not sick enough to die.
But it wasn’t death she craved.
It was dignity.
And relief from the pain that consumed her life every day.
Bill wrote me a letter, begging me to fix the system that failed Mary.
A system that seemed to care far more about billable hours than letting a human being die with dignity.
I’m voting YES for Mary.
*names have been changed for privacy reasons