Avoiding a senseless, costly coda to a mother’s life

“Tell me about your mother.”

That is always how it begins. There was never quite enough time the last few years, time to put her affairs in order, time to talk about the unpleasantness that comes at the end of life. Now here we were, standing watch beside her stretcher in the emergency room. Upstairs was the grim certainty of the intensive care unit, the ceaseless beep-beep-beep of the life-support machines, …

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