• Hospice Nurse Breaks the Internet with the ‘Death Rattle’Julie McFadden is gaining steam online with an unlikely topic: the end of life

    Hospice Nurse Breaks the Internet with the ‘Death Rattle’
    Julie McFadden is gaining steam online with an unlikely topic: the end of life

    TikTok has long been a place that people would visit to learn trending dances or watch puppies get baths. It’s really been branching out lately. Now you can get the inside scoop on death, straight from the experts.

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  • Lessons From a Veterinarian: How to Know When It’s Time To Say Goodbye To Your Pet (Interview)An interview with Dr. Dani McVety, veterinarian and founder of Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice and At-Home Euthanasia

    Lessons From a Veterinarian: How to Know When It’s Time To Say Goodbye To Your Pet (Interview)
    An interview with Dr. Dani McVety, veterinarian and founder of Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice and At-Home Euthanasia

    If you’ve ever had the privilege of loving a pet, you are probably familiar with how emotionally draining it can be when they get old. Because as a pet owner, you are inevitably confronted with the question of whether or not it is time to ease them through their final days with humane euthanasia, or…

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  • Vaccines Against Cancer May Be Around the CornerResearchers are developing vaccines using mRNA technology

    Vaccines Against Cancer May Be Around the Corner
    Researchers are developing vaccines using mRNA technology

    In a standard visit with your doctor, they might review any needed vaccinations like those against chicken pox or influenza, but vaccines against cancer could be around the corner. In recent years, a slew of vaccines have been tested against various types of cancer, and preliminary but promising results have emerged. These vaccines are reactive…

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  • “A Ghost Story”Follow a ghost through time in this haunting film as he confronts his existence as a memory

    “A Ghost Story”
    Follow a ghost through time in this haunting film as he confronts his existence as a memory

    Capturing the unique emotional experience of grief poses a challenge for any filmmaker. Typical movies attempting to depict grief and loss often feature a sympathetic protagonist—a mother facing her child’s terminal illness, an elderly man coping with his wife’s dementia, or a sibling mourning a brother or sister—and explore how they find meaning after enduring…

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  • Death Doulas Are Gaining in PopularityThese death “midwives” ease clients through the process of dying and grieving

    Death Doulas Are Gaining in Popularity
    These death “midwives” ease clients through the process of dying and grieving

    Death doulas offer emotional and practical support to both the dying and their loved ones. Credit: Alexander Grey The title “death doula” may still be a novel term for many people. But these death midwives, as they are sometimes described, are growing in number and acceptance as more people discover their value in navigating end-of-life…

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  • KAAN Architecten’s New Visitor Center at the Netherlands American CemeteryA new edifice adds to the cemetery site while enhancing its original purpose: Honoring America's wartime dead

    KAAN Architecten’s New Visitor Center at the Netherlands American Cemetery
    A new edifice adds to the cemetery site while enhancing its original purpose: Honoring America’s wartime dead

    In the southernmost region of the Netherlands, in the village of Margraten, is a cemetery dedicated to American soldiers who died in World War II. Originally built as a temporary repository for war dead in the waning days of 1944, so that no Americans would remain buried in enemy territory, the memorial has since become…

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  • “Prayer”Singer-songwriter reminds us that our loved ones live on in the sun and rain

    “Prayer”
    Singer-songwriter reminds us that our loved ones live on in the sun and rain

    Named Breakout Artist of the Year by AOL and Entertainment Weekly in 2003, Lizzie West is largely unknown today. Yet she created some beautiful music, including “Prayer,” an ode to those who’ve died, and a reminder to their loved ones left behind. The song begins with these lines, in West’s scratchy voice: Do not stand…

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  • Rutgers Health Study May Improve End-of-Life CareMedicare data analysis finds that people typically follow one of nine paths

    Rutgers Health Study May Improve End-of-Life Care
    Medicare data analysis finds that people typically follow one of nine paths

    A recent Rutgers Health study could lay the foundation for improvements in end-of-life care by identifying the nine paths that most Americans follow in the last three years of their lives. “Our study not only identifies different patterns of care but also sheds light on the clinical and policy factors that dictate where and when…

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  • “Heavy”The poet eloquently conveys the dizzying effect  of loss

    “Heavy”
    The poet eloquently conveys the dizzying effect of loss

    That timeI thought I could notgo any closer to griefwithout dying I went closer,and I did not die.Surely Godhad his hand in this, as well as friends.Still, I was bent,and my laughter,as the poet said, was nowhere to be found.Then said my friend Daniel,(brave even among lions),“It’s not the weight you carry but how you…

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