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Posted on 06/18/2011 1:31:13 PM PDT by wagglebee
Karen Royle’s memories of the last precious hours with her cherished mother Rona are far from the serene, comforting images that she had hoped for.
Before arriving in Zurich, Karen, 51, had envisaged a pretty Swiss chalet, with perhaps a view of the Alps — ‘just like the pictures in the book Heidi, which I’d loved as a child’.
But the Dignitas ‘apartment’ at No 84 Gertrudestrasse, where 74-year-old Rona chose to end her life rather than succumb further to the ravages of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), bore no comparison to the picture-postcard tranquility her family had imagined.
The image Karen and her partner David Sweetman cannot erase from their minds is of a ‘blue tin shed’ on a barren industrial estate, with no views, just a scrubby patch of garden littered with cigarette butts.
Inside, the prefabricated structure was equally spartan, with no decorations apart from two roses, an angel-shaped candle and a silver-winged candle holder that the Royles, at Rona’s request, had brought with them.
‘That vision of what was little more than a blue tin shed will stay with me for the rest of my life,’ says David, a decorator.
‘It reminded me of a gas chamber. I felt like I was taking Rona to her execution.
‘When the taxi turned into that industrial estate, we were so horrified I just wanted to turn straight round and drive away. The only thing that stopped us was Rona’s determination to go through with it. I kept asking her: “Rona, are you sure about this?” But she never wavered. To this day, though, I can’t help but feel guilty for taking her there.’
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I want my full twenty minutes - I was promised twenty minutes!
Death be not proud..
Actually it’s David, her son-in-law, calling her Rona in the story. If David’s own mother still lives, for him to call Rona “Mom” might be awkward, though that often is a term among affectionate in-laws (like she might call him “son”).
About the spartan accommodations, perhaps it is to focus the soon-to-be-decedent’s mind on the purpose. It’s macabre to ponder, but this “service” sure wouldn’t lack the money for a chalet, it’s not like it would be used for long by any “guest.” But about the gloomy digs, a visit to a cheerful chalet with an inspiring, “The Sound Of Music” kind of mountain view with classical music piped throughout and nice food and beverages might perk the person up and he or she might decide to live out his or her natural life after all. Then what would Satan’s minions have to report to their boss?
My thoughts exactly. Maybe she should have gone up a level or two, for an extra 25,000 or 50,000 pounds ... why cheap it!
It would have been better to take a cruise. Great food, good movies, Monte Carlo night and then the fourth night out at sea, fall off the ship.
Anybody who doesn't believe in Satan and demonic possession should study the case of Jack Kevorkian and try to explain it any other way.
Soylent Green, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVpN312hYgU
Logan’s Run http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WUUnc1M0TA&feature=related
are 2 excellent looks at our future if we don’t put a stop to 0, dems and RINOS.
She paid over 11,000 pounds to swallow a hundred bucks worth of barbituates? That Swiss shyster is gonna be a millionaire before long. Wonder what he’s gonna say to God on his judgement day?
Apparently my comprehension is not up to par today. Thanks for the correction.
What you say about the gloomy digs makes sense; after all if pleasant things were surrounding the ‘victim’, they might change their mind and demand their money back.
But another thing that crossed my mind is that the people performing these ‘executions’ don’t have the money (yet) to improve conditions enough to fool the victims.
But according to this account no matter what the surroundings were she was determined to end it.
God must be weeping.
Between you and I and the doorpost, from the glimpse I’m getting from these news articles, what they’re doing there could probably be carried out equally well by a person hell bent on suicide at home, much cheaper, and with no additional suffering than the Swiss plan. The wherewithal can be had at any grocery store.
This is hideous. The deluded people paid the equivelent of some $18K so that the elderly woman could take a few hundered dollars in pills in a tin shack. They call THAT death with diginty? I understand people not wanting themselves or others to die slow, painful deaths, but the euthenasia movement is a fraud.
One can only hope that others learn from this bad example, especially Americans.
God bless you.
‘Bee, she wasn’t paying for poison. She was paying for the sham dignity of having a doctor, somewhere, bless her plans, to attempt to evade the shame of a cheap do-it-yourself job. But as these stories leak out, “Dignitas” is going to have a lot of ‘splaining to do, Lucy. It would be grand if Switzerland got a clue and banned it.
If they wanted her to die some place with a view of the Alps, they should have rented a lovely cottage with a view of the Alps and let her die at her own pace there.
In there defense, I will say it sounds like Mom was the one behind this. But that’s what people do when they think their kids don’t care, they “don’t want to be a burden,” and they know that everybody just wants them to get moving and get it over with. So maybe it would be better with flowers in the room?
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Wow. What a post. Well said.
I’m so sorry. That must have been so hard.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
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Sheesh. 14 years ago, when I started nursing, people would put the garage door down with the car running, or drink a bottle of Drano. I didn’t & still don’t agree with their “choice” to committ suicide but I have to give them credit for not being so selfish as to drag another person into it.
What the hell has happened to us?? Satan must have one big-ass grin over this. Sick. Just sick.
The pro-death culture tries to make it out the person's *peaceful* death will be like a scene from Soylent Green or something.
"It reminded me of a gas chamber. I felt like I was taking Rona to her execution."
THAT'S BECAUSE YOU WERE, YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some years ago a friend’s mother was dying and they chose to have her live out her days at his family’s home, where’s she’d lived for several years at that point. They found a hospice related group that provided support services, including a harp player who came to the house a couple of times a week and played soothing celtic songs for the mom. They did everything they could to make her passing as comfortable and peaceful as possible. That’s something I’ve always admired.
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