A Hospice Death

Deaths in hospice are an expected outcome, no surprise. But that does not mean you are unaffected. Sometimes it is very hard to accept, as this past week with F. for we had a friendship that grew as we spent more time together and he gradually became comfortable enough with me to open up and express himself more expansively in Spanish, the language he preferred and used when he wanted to be precise in his conversation, although he could more than just get by in English. I always thought but never told him that in his struggle with and acceptance of his ALS, he was probably the bravest man I've recently -- and perhaps ever -- known. Had I ever told him that, he would -- in a modesty based on his faith -- surely have rejected that characterization. I will certainly miss him, but one part of me is not unhappy that he went rather unexpectedly while he still had some motor function, and before the disease robbed him of all that.