Blog Articles About Death

Mary

 Mary and Ginger. Photo by Ralph Blakely, IIII don’t remember exactly when and why Lynn introduced me to her cousin Mary. I think it had something to do with Mary being diagnosed with RA and Lynn thinking that we’d hit it off. So we emailed and then we called each other and yes, indeed. We…

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Title graphic — sand coloured background with turquoise and teal shapes. A circle shows a photo of me, a white woman in a white T-shirt and lounge pants sitting on the boardwalk, smiling. Text: I Survived the ICU. Logo for The Seated View

I Survived the ICU

Trigger warning: Medical trauma So, where was I? The last time I posted, I had the flu and was pretty miserable. It was the precursor to a roller coaster ride into a very dark place. The flu turned into pneumonia, which sent me to the hospital in the middle of March. There was a trip…

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How Do You Live Well with Rheumatoid Arthritis when it has a Mortality Risk?

RA has a mortality risk. When it hit the news that Glenn Frey of The Eagles had died from complications of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and other conditions, it was an uncomfortable reminder that this disease with which we live doesn’t just make life pretty challenging, but that it can actually kill us. How do you…

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Kurt

My mother has two brothers and a sister. They were born in two teams of two, the two oldest, Poul and Lissie, born about 10 years before my mother and Kurt. Kurt was the baby of the family, five years younger than my mother, and true to form of the youngest child, got in a…

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Paula

Paula has always been in my life. She became part of the family before I was born when she married my uncle Poul. They met when he went to work for the U.S. Army in Germany after World War II, fell madly in love and married. Later, they lived all over the world, but by…

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She Flew

Beth has died. This shouldn’t be a surprise — she has lived with autonomic failure for years. When we first became friends, we did so knowing that she was going to die. At the time, she estimated another year, maybe two. That’s six years ago. Somehow, I had begun to think that Beth was perennial….

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Claire

Almost all of us have one. Someone we grew up with, were friends with since forever. Someone who knows us better than anyone else because they were there during the hard years, the good times and the really awkward teenage years. Someone who’ll keep your secrets, the person you can call in the middle of…

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In Summary

The other day, I was having conversation with a friend – you know the kind (the conversation, that is, not the friend) – the kind that takes place late at night when it’s dark outside, your shields are down, making you get all deep and philosophical. Great fun, but it makes you think for days….

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