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“Gomers are human beings who have lost what goes into being human beings. They want to die, and we will not let them.”
― Samuel Shem, The House of God

“I believe it’s imperative to bring the light of support and knowledge to patients and families when death is approaching.”
― Lisa J. Shultz, A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent

“A paradigm shift of viewing palliative care or hospice as a gift instead of seeing it as giving up has the potential to change the way we experience advanced age.”
― Lisa J. Shultz, A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent

“When I reflect on the stories of death supported by hospice care and contrast it with our story depicting an absence of support, I find myself dealing with envy and anger. I have channeled those emotions into this book with the hope that hearing our story might give someone else a chance to create a better ending to the life of a loved one.”
― Lisa J. Shultz, A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent

“It took until the end of her life for me to cherish each day with my mother the way I naturally did with my brother. At the end, I loved my mother simply, without request to do better in any way, or be more capable in any way. I simply loved that she was there, and she was my mother.
I wish I did that more often in my life. I will do that more often in my life for those who are still here.”
― Darcy Leech, From My Mother

“My lessons from my mother’s life are many, but one that stings the most and the one I want to imbue in my heart is to not judge people negatively by how they act, even if they look normal, or have been normal in your past, because you never know what they have to fight inside â€� something they never chose to have.
The answer to Dustin walking was not willpower. He was not born to walk, and while trying made us better people, more practice wasn’t the answer â€� compassion was. The answer to the feeling that I was losing my mother slowly over the years was not to try to motivate her into a new perspective to magically fix all the problems â€� it was love.”
― Darcy Leech, From My Mother

“If I had you, I would have never worried about the end of life; I don’t know why you do then.”
― M.F. Moonzajer

“Our health care approaches squander billions on extravagant treatment regimes that end up accomplishing little, as a society we refuse to adopt the small, even tiny adjustments that could easily reduce the clawing uncertainties that now degrade millions.”
― Robert Martensen, A Life Worth Living: A Doctor's Reflections on Illness in a High-Tech Era

“I entered the picture in the eleventh hour as a guide to the exit of his life. I navigated as best I could the role of end-of-life shepherd—a journey that I had never taken before. I have to forgive myself for what I did not know. And I have to forgive him for the times that he felt unequipped to deal with the unknown.”
― Lisa J. Shultz, A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent

“[We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive. Those reasons matter not just at the end of life, or when debility comes, but all along the way. Whenever serious sickness or injury strikes and your body or mind breaks down, the vital questions are the same: What is your understanding of the situation and its potential outcomes? What are your fears and what are your hopes? What are the trade-offs you are willing to make and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?”
― Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

“I told her that the pills will let her slip off and that when a person dies there comes a long clean sleep.â€�
“That’s all,â€� Alexandria whispers, echoing after her, “a long clean sleep.”
― Annie Fisher, The Greater Picture

“The window of opportunity to plan and prepare for the end of his life had closed gradually. Any cracks left open to talk candidly were tenuous and fleeting.”
― Lisa J. Shultz, A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent

“I felt myself in a sticky spot as a daughter and desperately needed a third party, such as a doctor, to address his declining function and end-of-life considerations of safety, comfort, and care management.”
― Lisa J. Shultz, A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent

“...she saw that, as a patient drew near to the terminal stage of an illness, far from there being 'nothing more we can do', there was a great deal more to be done: bring comfort in relaxed surroundings, look after the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of the patient, give medical care if possible, but if not, meticulous nursing in the last stages of life.”
― Jennifer Worth, In the Midst of Life