When Daisy Nichols read about the hospice seminar offered recently, she and husband Jim immediately marked their calendar.
“We enjoyed the day, strange as it sounds,” she said.
Nichols said the seminar was well done and worthwhile. She and her husband are meeting with their children later this month to lay out their wishes for end-of-life care.
“They want only what’s best for us,” Nichols said.
Daisy, 82, and Jim, 84, want to stay in their Salisbury home as long as possible, but they don’t want to be a burden to their children, either.
“Our children think we’re never gonna die,” Nichols said. But the Dec. 29 death of her friend, Doris Porter, reiterated the need for the family meeting this month.
The Nicholses are in good health.
“We are enjoying life,” she said.
They enjoy traveling to the beach and the mountains. Daisy Nichols still drives.
“We’re in good shape,” she says. “Going and doing keeps us in good shape. We all keep burying our head in the sand, like death is not gonna happen. But it is.”
— Susan Shinn