Alas, the people who come to visit me now look at me with great suspicion. They want to know if the whole thing was a scam. They can’t believe, after I said goodbye, I’m going to Martha’s Vineyard instead of Paradise.
Art Buchwald, The Washington Post,
3/23/2006
When celebrated columnist Art Buchwald checked himself
into a residential hospice in February of 2006, he expected to live two or
three weeks. His doctors told him he had no kidney function, and Buchwald—who
was 80 years old and facing a number of health challenges— decided to forgo
dialysis.
Apparently, one of Buchwald’s kidneys didn’t get the
memo. It continued functioning, and Buchwald lived to “hold court” in the
community room of The Washington Home and Hospice for almost five months.
At the end of this time, he didn’t die. He checked
himself out of hospice and went back home to Martha’s Vineyard. He lived
another six months, spending time with friends and family, before his kidneys
failed and he passed away. (Buchwald said the lesson in this experience was
“Don’t trust your kidneys.”)
In the time between being admitted to hospice and
dying, Buchwald led a remarkable life. He visited with family and friends (and
enemies), hand-picked his eulogizers and wrote a book about his end-of-life
experience (“Too Soon to Say Goodbye”). He wrote columns twice a week for the
Washington Post, was interviewed by a host of national media icons and, to use
his words, “became a poster boy for death.”
In 2006, The National Hospice Foundation honored
Buchwald with the Hospice Champion Award. In 2008, in recognition of the
positive attention Buchwald brought to hospice care, the National Hospice
Foundation created the Buchwald Spirit Award for Public Awareness.
Robin Morton Murray
Taken from the Agape Healthcare "By Your Side" publication
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