kate_schaefer | Active dying

I've just had word that my friend Q is now in what the hospice staff call the process of active dying.

We've said goodbye. Closer friends are with her in this vigil. I probably won't go see her again. I don't think I could be in the room with another dying person right now without crying pretty hard, and it's hard on the dying to have crying people around them. This is a practical consideration, not an emotional one: crying can be contagious, like yawning or laughing, and it could make the dying person choke.

I always send to see for whom the bell tolls. Involved though I am with mankind, it matters to me which part of it I am losing at the moment. She always did, too.