PULSE- Kelly McCutcheon Adams, a director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, was featured in Pulse Magazine last week.  She told the story of the death of her next door neighbor. Read an excerpt from the story below-

Tom and Sally have been great neighbors–private people, and the salt of the earth. In winter, they’d snowblow our driveway, despite being our seniors by thirty years. Once, years back, when our dog was gnawing a frozen squirrel and I was freaking out, Tom calmly took the squirrel away by making a game of it (the “squirrelcicle incident,” as it’s know in our household). On Halloween, our kids would trick-or-treat at their house first; at Christmas, they’d make Tom and Sally peppermint bark, and we would bring it over and admire their ceramic Christmas village, laid out on card tables.

These were the only times we would visit their home. Our other conversations were reserved for the driveway, where we’d meet when gathering the mail, raking the leaves or putting out the recycling bins. We were grateful to have such good neighbors who watched out for us.

A year ago, Tom was diagnosed with lung cancer. In our driveway conversations, Sally revealed that the cancer was spreading. And she made it clear that Tom wished to avoid ending up in the hospital.

Read the rest of the story here.