That’s really what grief has taught me. That I can survive. I used to be afraid that if I experienced grief it would overcome me and I wouldn’t be ab… - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

we have long and controversial discussions about whether patients should be told the truth — a question that rarely arises when the dying person is tended by the family physician who has known him from delivery to death and who knows the weaknesses and strengths of each member of the family.

Dios mío, dame la serenidad para aceptar las cosas que no puedo cambiar, el valor para cambiar las que puedo cambiar, y la sabiduría para discernir entre ambas.

When we finally had a patient, he welcomed me with open arms. He invited me to sit down and it was obvious that he was eager to speak. I told him that I did not wish to hear him now but would return the next day with my students. I was not sensitive enough to appreciate his communications. It was so hard to get one patient, I had to share him with my students. Little did I realize then that when such a patient says “Please sit down now,” tomorrow may be too late. When we revisited him the next day, he was lying back in his pillow, too weak to speak. He made a meager attempt to lift his arm and whispered “Thank you for trying” — he died less than an hour later and kept to himself what he wanted to share with us and what we so desperately wanted to learn.