After my mother died, my father wanted to die too. He was desolate from grief – much more, I think, than he had ever imagined. He couldn’t walk far, so his lifelong love affair with bird-watching was over. The fellow twitchers who had formed his social group were great about trying to include him. His depression was not irrationalNow and then, but with increasing regularity, he would talk to me very seriously and soberly and tell me that all he really wanted was to die with dignity.

Source: The Irish Times September 29, 2020 00:00 UTC