Use swabs to wet her mouth, the nurse told me. Hold her hand.

护士告诉我用棉签蘸水湿润她的嘴唇，举起她的手。

Her senses are dimming, but hearing will linger. Tell her you love her.

她的意识逐渐消退，但是还能够听见你的声音。快告诉她你爱她。

She died on Father's Day. I had bought Dad a bottle of cognac,

母亲在父亲节这一天去世的。我给父亲带来一瓶白兰地，

which we were drinking when we heard her breathing stop.

当听到她停止呼吸的时候，我们喝了杯酒。

Serious illness is a journey to a foreign country.

经历一场严重的疾病就像经历一场去陌生国度的旅行。

You do not speak the language, the people are strangers,

你不会说当地的语言，身边都是陌生人，

and you cannot know how you will behave until you arrive.

你不知道做什么直到你到达目的地。

But inner strength, too, is unpredictable.

而内在的力量也是不可预测的。

For after the night of Mom's death when I thought I could not go on, we went on.

母亲去世的那晚，悲痛让我不能自已，以为要沉溺于这样的情绪很久，但是后来还是恢复了。

That could not have happened without hospice.

这得益于临终关怀组织。

The hospice nurse had made her comfortable; the aide had set her hair.

护士梳理好母亲的头发，让她安详地离开人世。

Deaths like my mothers prove that hospice can make death not just an ending but a kind of culmination.

我母亲的去世让我意识到临终关怀让死亡变成人生的高潮而不是终点。

If you control symptoms, if you provide support to patients and families,

如果你能让病情得到控制，如果你为病人及其家属提供帮助，

you can see great growth at the end of life.

当生命逝去时，你会感受到生命得到了升华。

There are many alternatives to suicide even at the end of life.

在生命最后关头有很多方式可以代替自杀。

Hospice offers the hope that death, while inevitable, need not be impersonal, need not be unbearable.

临终关怀给人带来希望，死亡是不可避免的，是主观的，也是可以承受的。

The argument over assisted suicide may have helped Americans recognize the ways in which medicine,

辅助自杀的争论可能会帮助美国人意识到药物的作用，

so good at so many things, fails the dying.

它对很多事情都是有利的，

But it also prevents us from meeting the real challenge of providing decent end-of-life care.

但是它让死亡失去了意义。它也无法让人体会到逝者在临终前享有的温暖而体面的照顾。