We spend our days watching ambulances, as Covid-19 rips through the country.
Tag Archives: Death and Dying
My Second Phase of Adulthood
How I’m changing my perspective on life.
We Weren’t Meant to Grieve Alone
We’ve been deprived of the last moments with loved ones and in-person gatherings to mourn together. What can we do to heal?
When an Estranged Relative Dies, Some Face Grief, Regret and Relief
Some have regrets over unfinished business. For others, the end of an unhappy and complicated relationship just comes as a relief.
When Patients Choose to End Their Lives
For some, the decision to die is more complicated than a wish to reduce pain.
The Death Cleaner
For a forensic cleaner in Mexico City, helping grieving families heal is at the core of his service.
Behind Closed Doors, ‘the Difficulty and the Beauty’ of Pandemic Hospice Work
“I did not really understand when people would ask, ‘Why me and why my family?’” a hospice chaplain said. “Now I was asking the same questions.”
Where Do the Dead Go in Our Imaginations?
My friend was gone. I needed to do something to honor the person she was.
What Loss Looks Like: Share an Object of Remembrance
Show us the artifacts that help you memorialize a person or experience lost during the pandemic. Your submission may be included in an upcoming project.
Death Has Many Names
Not a day goes by that speakers of the Yoruba language do not make mention of death as both a phenomenon and a certainty.
In Our Pandemic Isolation, Every Death Is a Covid Death
Even a cancer death like my friend’s is subject to one of the most brutal cruelties of the pandemic: Being apart.
Frank Shankwitz, a Founder of Make-a-Wish, Is Dead at 77
A state highway patrolman in Arizona, he helped a terminally ill boy become a motorcycle cop and then came up with a plan to help more children realize their dreams.
Inside the U.K.’s Second Covid Wave
One hundred thousand people dead. A new, more contagious strain. The toll is close to unbearable.
‘It’s Still Getting Worse.’ Inside Britain’s Vicious Second Wave.
Filing Suit for ‘Wrongful Life’
More Americans are writing end-of-life instructions as the pandemic renders such decisions less abstract. But are medical providers listening?
When Some Critics Reject the Film That’s About Your Life
After Hollywood optioned his devastating essay about his dying wife, Matthew Teague vowed the movie would do right by her. The reviews landed like a gut punch.
Zoom Funeral Tips
Holding a funeral or memorial on a videoconferencing platform like Zoom offers several advantages: It’s easy for distant guests to attend, and you can record it.
The Power (and Joy) of Being Prepared
An important lesson of 2020 is that preparation for a health crisis is a gift to the people you love. Today’s Well challenge shows you how.
Xin Xing, Giant Panda With Progeny Around the Globe, Dies at 38
The star of China’s Chongqing Zoo was the world’s oldest panda in captivity. More than 150 of her descendants have lived in several countries.
The Sunday Read: ‘The Movement to Bring Death Closer’
America’s home-funeral guides want us to be less afraid and more in touch with death.
In Indonesia, a Blurred Boundary Between the Living and the Dead
The Toraja people of southern Sulawesi, one of Indonesia’s largest islands, are known for their elaborate death rituals, which include preserving and exhuming the dead.
What Losing My Father Taught Me About Parenting, Planets and Pain
Pain, both physical and emotional, is not something to be feared; it’s something to learn to manage, no matter your age, health or time left to live.
My Brother Died and Reminded Me of These Life Lessons
I went home to celebrate Frederick’s glorious life and was forced to reflect on my own.
An Italian Teenager Could Become the First Millennial Saint
Carlo Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006 and was an early adopter of the internet, was beatified over the weekend, putting him on the path to sainthood in the Catholic Church.
How to Die (Without Really Trying)
A conversation with the religious scholar Brook Ziporyn on Taoism, life and what might come after.
Helping Children With Pandemic Grief
Many children may learn of a grandparent’s death without a chance to visit to say goodbye.
A Michigan Woman Was Declared Dead, Then Woke Up at a Funeral Home
Timesha Beauchamp, 20, was taken to the funeral home in a body bag. When she arrived, a worker discovered her breathing with her eyes open.
The Particular Pain of Pandemic Grief
I had never told my father I loved him until he lay dying half a world away, body wrecked with coronavirus.
Dying in Your Mother’s Arms
A palliative care doctor on finding a “good death” for children in the worst situations.
Talking to the Dead in the Sunshine State
I was searching for facts, for a lost friend, and for what couldn’t be explained.
Don’t Fear Dying. Fear Violence.
Why do millions of practitioners of the Jain religion strive to avoid harming even microscopic creatures?
Boom Time for Death Planning
The coronavirus pandemic has drawn new business to start-ups that provide end-of-life services, from estate planning to a final tweet.
Exit Arias: What Opera Can Teach Us About Dying
In opera, death is an art — one that might light the way to a more mindful conversation about the end of life.
How One Shoreline Took the Lives of 7 Young People
“Do you see my friends?” A year of tragedy along a strip of New York City beaches.
Finally, a Wedding. It Was About Time.
The author learned that loving is just as much about holding on as it is letting go.
Have Separation Anxiety? Try Holding a Hinge
These tiny, beautifully crafted objects have helped me to understand and accept my fear of life’s painful departures.
‘I Believed That I Would See Her Again’
A Christian theologian recounts how her mother’s death affirmed her faith and belief in the afterlife.
Lifting the Burden From Doctors and Nurses
A lesson from hospice care, where death is accepted as inevitable, might help.
She Spent Her Last Month of College Lifting Bodies in a Morgue
After her campus closed, a college senior took a job as a temporary morgue worker on the front lines of the pandemic.
How a Nurse Who Gives Last Rites Spends His Sundays
Yaakov Shereshevsky has been saying the Viduy, a Jewish prayer, for terminal Covid patients.
How Do You Maintain Dignity for the Dead in a Pandemic?
Overwhelmed by bodies, funeral homes are struggling to fulfill their mission to grieving families.
Coronavirus Doctors Can’t Save Everyone
We need to be honest with ourselves and our patients. We can’t “do everything” and “save everyone.”
Grandma Rocket, the Virus and a Family Whose Love Bridged 2,500 Miles
A matriarch to generations, both in the United States and Colombia, she struggled with the coronavirus on a ventilator. They gathered online and in the I.C.U. to prepare for the end.
After a Lifetime Together, Coronavirus Takes Them Both
Across the country, reports are surfacing of long-term couples dying from Covid-19 in quick succession, redoubling the pain for those they leave behind.
Where Are the Photos of People Dying of Covid?
In times of crisis, stark images of sacrifice or consequence have often moved masses to act.
Tilly Remembers Her Grandfather
More than 50,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. One of them was Craig Breimhorst.
Where There’s a Will in England, There’s a Way
Prodded by the coronavirus, thousands are making or updating their estate arrangements, but an archaic law requiring two witnesses in person is forcing people to take drastic measures.
A New Way to Mourn
A funeral, punctuated with technical difficulties and expressions of deep love, reveals the new rituals we are creating in crisis.
Their Calling Was to Lay Hands on the Sick. Then Came the Coronavirus.
How the pandemic transformed the lives and ministry of eight Manhattan friars, and what their example can teach the rest of us.
Confronting the Coronavirus, Our Fear, Our Trembling, Our Strength
Facing death can be a key to our liberation and survival.