It has been so long since I have published a post. My excuse is that I have been busy on deadline filing another book (non-fiction ghosted memoir), and I have immediately jumped onto the next. This one is about death… well, that’s what it appears to be about but I have learnt even in these first few weeks of research that writing about death means remembering how to live.
I learnt this week that there is a euthanasia movement in the Netherlands that is nicknamed ‘five to midnight’. It is called this because, for those who are living with a progressive or terminal illness and wishing to end their life, that phrase represents their dilemma of when to go. Often they need to depart just before the end, before they lose their capacity to make decisions, or carry out the act in a safe environment with the help of specialist services. They actually have to leave the party just before they’re ready.
But there is another way of looking at this idea of five to midnight. Yes, it is applied in th…