Any Last Words?

Some things don't change, and some things change dramatically over time. Death is still the end for everyone. How that death comes has changed very much since the 1st Century.

I came across two different sources for an article from the New Yorker that does a wonderful job of describing the challenges you face here in the 21st Century at the end of life. (I'll warn you it is very long, but very well written and filled with real stories about real people that help it hit home.) The article revolves around being prepared to live well at the end of life. That sentence seems to not even make sense... live well? when you are dying? The author is a physician - an insider in the medical profession - and so speaks with first hand knowledge of how things often happen at the end of life, battling whatever medical condition is hastening death.

I'd encourage everyone to read it all the way through. It can help families prepare. It can help Pastors who help families prepare. And perhaps lost in the middle is a key part of the piece that speaks of critical faith questions:
a 1415 medieval Latin text was reprinted in more than a hundred editions across Europe. Reaffirming one’s faith, repenting one’s sins, and letting go of one’s worldly possessions and desires were crucial, and the guides provided families with prayers and questions for the dying in order to put them in the right frame of mind during their final hours. Last words came to hold a particular place of reverence.

It appears that you have come to expect miracles from the medical profession. Miracles do happen, but death still comes.

And Wheat Ridge has some excellent resources available. Check out Odyssey Through Cancer from Wheat Ridge Ministries. (There are other excellent booklets in that series as well.)