Anita Hannig — It's Just Like a Good Birth

“I would like to think that when my time is ready,

I’ll know, and I’ll be glad to go.

I have an expiration date, and I want to honor that.”

Talking to Derianna about death and dying

became as commonplace as talking about the weather.

She had spent more than half her life

breaking down the taboos and barriers

that kept people from engaging meaningfully with their own mortality.

As a hospice nurse and later as a volunteer,

Derianna had shepherded hundreds of people

over the threshold between life and death.

And it was assisted deaths specifically

that left an indelible impression on her.

“I got to see a window into the other side.

I could watch patients let go and be at peace

and know they were free from suffering, free from angst.

The first time I watched an assisted death,

I thought, Oh my God, it’s just like a good birth.

It felt just like a good birth.”

Her exposure therapy worked:

in the autumn of her life, she had made friends with death.

“I have no fear now, no fear whatsoever,” she told me,

“In fact, I look forward to it.”

Anita Hannig

The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America