How long I have been a member of DWD in its many forms is lost in time, probably 15-20yrs. I lived in Canberra until ’93 when retirement brought me to Mongarlowe and my home in the bush. In a way my life is still tied to Canberra that’s where some of my family lives and where many of my life-changing events have been! It is the reason to belong to DWD ACT.
Retiring from being a dedicated preschool teacher was due to work-related injury. The damage done to my back by having to bend and work with children over low tables was crucial. It is a constant factor in my deterioration over time. My future looks bleak as pain increases and my ability to do and create diminishes, I have no intention of continuing with life if my mind and ability to look after myself becomes a reality.
What is the point of keeping me alive just to satisfy the religious people who do not even know me? They have no right to decide how I die. It is my death, my pain and my experience. I ultimately die alone no matter who stands around me either enveloping me with their caring or saying prayers. I intend to live as long as I feel life is worth experiencing. My choice, my decision, no one else can feel what I feel in the end….. I may have to find a way of ending my life alone so the family does not get into trouble with the law.
That is the reason why I believe it is of utmost importance to change the law. Many of my friends feel the same way. Unfortunately my close friend died in a demented state because she was unable to find a way out of life when she wanted to end it. She was a highly intelligent woman who suffered from acute anxiety because she knew what was happening to her mind. Just appalling to see this brilliant woman disappear, look into her eyes and see the anguish there.
Fortunately my family understands and I have told them of signing up my body to science. If that doesn’t happen or the coroner is involved, they have agreed to bury me on the property in a card board box and plant a deep-rooted tree on top, no headstone, matter just changing matter! Selling the property? No problem, after all one only lives for as long as people remember you! Their memory, for good or ill, is my ‘last resting place’!
We human beings are good at squandering resources regardless of the consequences and I hate waste. Look at our graveyards, what a waste of compost and nowadays cremation is the ‘in thing’. Does anyone think about the heavy pollution that cremation causes our atmosphere?
Sandra