Death, of course, is not a failure. Death is normal. Death may be the enemy, but it is also the natural order of things. - Atul Gawande

We’re good at addressing specific, individual problems: colon cancer, high blood pressure, arthritic knees. Give us a disease, and we can do something about it. But give us an elderly woman with high blood pressure, arthritic knees, and various other ailments besides — an elderly woman at risk of losing the life she enjoys — and we hardly know what to do and often only make matters worse.

Life is choices, and they are relentless. No sooner have you made one choice than another is upon you.

A nurse has five seconds to make a patient like you and trust you. It’s in the whole way you present yourself. I do not come in saying, ‘I’m so sorry.’ Instead, it’s: ‘I’m the hospice nurse, and here’s what I have to offer you to make your life better. And I know we don’t have a lot of time to waste.