•March 8, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

The topic for the week is only a little less depressing than the Illinois budget impasse—the end of life.

My hometown friend Archie, 90, has been a widower for decades. One of his two daughters lives a million miles away; the other passed away some years ago.

I sometimes bump into Archie at the nearby McDonald’s at lunch, alone, chewing absent-mindedly on a hamburger, looking forlornly out the window.

To add injury to insult, at present Archie is suffering a bedeviling case of eczema over much of his body.

“I’m ready to go,” Archie tells me. The bleakness in his voice pitiful, as Archie had for many decades a good, successful life as a small-town merchant, active in his community.

But even if he really wants to go, as it appears he does, how does he do so? The available options are gruesome, it seems.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.