At this festive time is when family and friendly gatherings are more popular than previous times of the year, and it’s also
when discussions and conversations about many matters are likely to come forward. Sometimes the focus of one of those conversations might be death, something we see and hear more of in the daily news as the situation in Iraq continues.
Furthermore, it is when this subject takes centre stage is when some
people at the gathering will start saying certain things such as how he or she will prefer to make his or her exit from this world. One of those exits comes in the form of dying in one’s sleep, and when some one says that he or she would prefer to leave the world in this manner, I stop and wonder how selfish that attitude might seem.
What about the
surviving loved one or ones who have to face the trauma of seeing his/her loved one in that condition. Does the person who must have known he was going to die in his sleep think about that?
That one image the surviving loved one will not be able to soon erase from his memory, and that’s just one aspect, what about the range of emotions the surviving loved one feels as he walks into a room and beholds the sight of the loved one he will no longer be able to talk to or share fond memories?
That can be emotionally draining as well, as opposed to some one who is ill and is very much aware that his end is near along with his family members and close friends. Most people say they prefer dying in their sleep because it is painless and causes one to suffer less than he would if he were enduring continuous pain that ultimately leads to his or her end from this world.
Maybe that is fine for those surviving members who have no problem walking into a room and seeing such a sight, but to others, that sight can have a life altering effect as it is difficult for some people to forget such images from their minds, even though death is a part of life that we all know will come sooner or later.
In my view, people should not traumatize their loved ones any more than is necessary if such a situation should arise, because sometimes it is difficult enough for some persons to recover from a loved one’s parting if that loved one is hospitalised with a serious illness, as opposed to walking in to a room to discover the unexpected parting of a loved one who died in his or her sleep.