with friends and family at her side...
I've always found it odd how famous people die with an audience.Yesterday, fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt passed away with an advanced form of cancer at the age of 95.
It's understandable when someone is near death and it comes as no surprise, however reading the news story and the 'friends and family at her side' line came up again. I believe it's used too often as though the passing of someone was a performance.
It's my opinion... you probably have one too!
Comments (5)
She was a very rich woman.
My mother once told me that when visiting a friend in hospital she witnessed a couple of nurses plonk an elderly woman on a commode and then walk away continuing their chatter. They hadn't acknowledged the woman's existence in the process.
A few minutes later the woman died alone, still on the commode.
It inspired my mum to become a care assistant for the elderly, so strongly she felt that noone should die with such indignity and alone.
It can also be an important part of the grieving process to be with a loved one as they pass.
It may sound like a clichéd phrase, some may prefer to die without their loved ones witnessing their passing, some may prefer not to be a witness to the end, but I'm generally comforted to hear when people don't have horrible, undignified, or solitary deaths through lack of care.