He lay in the hospital bed with more tubes seemingly pushed into him each day.

A decorated World War II veteran, he deserved far better than the death he got. I knew him well enough to know that had he been able to talk, he would have told doctors to pull the plug.

There is no way he would have allowed himself to lie there day after day, helpless, shriveling before our eyes, unable to even breathe on his own.

But our family never talked about the kind of care we wanted or didn’t want at the end.

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