The Getting Old Blog » Death

Know how it feels to be very old?   Imagine this: You’re living in Milan. You’re a fairly healthy eighty-eight year old.  Then the virus gets you. Symptoms of Covid-19 appear: Fever, extre...

https://ninamishkin.com/2020/03/29/medical-triage/

I was the one who bought them. It wasn’t an impulse purchase.  Last Sunday afternoon, I deliberately walked to the flower shop a few blocks away.  So how could this large arrangement of fresh...

https://ninamishkin.com/2017/08/25/meditation-on-flowers/

[Whatever the headline may suggest, this post is not about last Tuesday’s election.  My feelings about that are indeed awful, as if someone had suddenly and unexpectedly died, except it’s ...

https://ninamishkin.com/2016/11/12/big-word-for-feeling-awful/

I can’t tell you what happened after I drove away from the Princeton hospital in the middle of the afternoon on May 6 because I don’t remember much about it, other than that I kept swerving�...

https://ninamishkin.com/2016/10/26/and-then/

This is not a philosophical question, or a religious one. It’s a question about what happens to the person sitting by a hospital bedside when the occupant of the bed, someone who was loved and ...

https://ninamishkin.com/2016/07/29/after-death-what/

I’m not generally a group person. I have belonged to book groups over the years, where I invariably tend to talk a lot.  As a rule, however, I’m more comfortable meeting people one on one, ...

https://ninamishkin.com/2016/07/25/bereavement-assignment/

i. He died at the University Medical Center of Princeton on May 6, 2016. ii. It was sudden, and not sudden. Although this blog has candidly addressed my thoughts and feelings as I enter late li...

https://ninamishkin.com/2016/07/03/my-darling-bill-is-dead/

So here’s the story.  (Think early eighteenth century France, big pouffy dresses for the ladies, tight britches for the guys.) In a tavern in Amiens, where carriages change horses, young peop...

https://ninamishkin.com/2016/02/22/really-dumb-story-makes-senior-citizens-sob/

Here’s an interesting subject: The deep-down feelings we don’t talk about — not ever, not to anyone. It’s a no-brainer at work. “Keep your mouth shut” should be a mantra for anyone ...

https://ninamishkin.com/2015/08/29/writing-short-4850/

Whenever presented with a question more complicated than what the weather’s like outside or should a friend send back the weird new shoes she’s bought – in other words, something that req...

https://ninamishkin.com/2015/08/12/writing-short-3150/