Helping grieving relatives reach a difficult decision without hectoring or judging is a fine art
“What kind of God would do this?” she sobs and rocks. I am sinking in my chair and the nurse is perched on the side table. To focus on something other than her palpable despair, I regard the worn sofa and imagine a public hospital meeting room with comfort and sunlight. When a daughter arrives, she squeezes in beside her grieving mother.
She is a woman plainly devoted to God and her children, especially the unmarried daughter who is now my patient. The second daughter strikes me as thoughtful and educated, and as becomes evident, helpless to stem the tide of her mother’s sorrow. I fret at this, not because I am rushed, rather the patient needs an urgent outcome.
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