When Bereavement Hits Home

Dignity and compassion should never depend on status

My mother died on Thursday, March 26, at 2:30 p.m. She was 94 years old. For the past four months, she endured nonstop, excruciating pain. Watching someone you love suffer like that changes you. It prepares you for the inevitability of death—but it does not prepare you for the weight of it.

My mother had a youthful presence that defied her age. People of…