13 The Litmus Test
Let each thing you would do, say or intend be like that of a dying person.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
Greatest Regret of the Dying
For eight years, Australian Bronnie Ware was an in-home caregiver who looked after people who were dying. Her clients knew they were severely ill and most were in the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. She helped them do the things they struggled to do on their own: shower, prepare meals, wipe their bottoms, organize their medications. She gradually realized, though, that the most important role she was playing was not physical but emotional. She was there to listen.
She was there to listen to her patients give what renowned German American psychologist Erik Erikson describes as “a retrospective ...
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