HW 21 - Expert #1

Some insights and experiences that stood out to me:

"In denial, and a man."
Once he was insured, he was given the best treatment, magnificent.
Fortunate enough to take time off and spend it with her husband, the best times of their marriage.
DNR- Do Not Resuscitate form.
Death is not pretty like in the movies, the body begins to deteriorate right before your eyes.
Sprinkling himself with water, cooling method or "return to the womb".
Buddist Monk told her that the signs of death would include his lack of desire to eat, and he would push his hands away as if he were pushing death away.


When Beth Bernett came and spoke about the death of her husband for 26 years, I didn't expect for it to touch me the way that it did. It was more then the typical sad story about a wife who loses her soulmate. It was more about the way she altered her life for death. Instead of her being completely sorrowful and mournful she accepted it. She learned that being sad about something you cannot change did nothing but made you more miserable. By accepting fate she found that she had some of the happiest times with her husband in all of their 26 years together. I think that that was the biggest lesson I learned from her, to not be completely sad. Enjoy death while you can because once its finalized, then thats it.

I've never heard of the idea that when people die they begin to push away as if they were pushing death away. I think it makes a lot of sense though, like if I were sick I too would push death away with all of the strength that I had left inside of my body. I wonder if that happens to the people left inside of hospitals do die, the ones addicted to pain medications that are meant to help them. I wonder if that happens to the people that no one cares about, do they welcome the grim reaper because he promises that someone will be there to finally care for them? This theory brings me a lot of questions. But it kind of makes me fell better. It gives me a sense if assurance that when someone I know is going I can kind of know exactly when they will time out of the world.

There were many things that I have learned from Beth Bernett. Her story was touching and I found that I myself felt the familiar sensation in my throat. The burning one that you try and wash down with your saliva but the thickness of it makes it nearly impossible. This is the same feeling I felt when my grandfather died. Why is it that we can feel so completely connected to a person we have never met through such a complex experience? Im still scared of death, but I fell that listening to Mrs. Bernett and reading these books I want to appreciate my life and when things like death happen around me I would like to be a little bit more accepting of it. It should help with the pain.