Yesterday I attended a funeral of a friend who died suddenly of a heart attack. Her husband, also a dear friend, is devastated, indeed still in a state of shock. The anguish on his face during the funeral service was heart breaking to see.
I also have another friend whose husband has suffered severe brain damage owing to a massive blood clot in part of his brain. He has been getting steadily worse during the past year, and on the same day that I attended the funeral, he has finally gone into a nursing home which particularly deals with the brain damaged members of our society because she can no longer handle the severity of his symptoms. His wife has described the last year as some sort of hell, a period which she likens to a prolonged bereavement without him actually dying. Both my wife and I think that he will very likely die within the next year.
Both these people were/are of a similar age to myself.
In both these cases I am very much aware of how a death affects those who love them. I haven't a clue as to whether a prolonged death is any worse than a sudden death, both can bring devastation to their loved ones. I know that this does not really answer Floo's question, but I can only hope that my death, whenever it comes, may happen in such a way that it creates the least anguish to my loved ones.
