❄️ Freezethawed: The Newsletter #006 - The 5 regrets of the dying

Anujeet Paul -

Hello everyone!

Its been a difficult, tiresome and yet eventful week at work that ended with the submission of my first original study on COVID-19 in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology. Research work is harrowing, but quite addictive and the end product is satisfying.

Also, this week I came across an interesting read in The Guardian. An Australian nurse working in palliative care tending to patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives, spent time recording the dying epiphanies of her patients in her blog. I’ve summed up the top five regrets she mentioned. They are:

  1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me – This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.
  2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard – This came from every male patient that she nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship
  3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings – Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming.
  4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends – Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years.
  5. I wish that I had let myself be happier – This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives.

Many of the sentences mentioned above are directly lifted from the article or the blog, because they convey the emotion soo well. I leave you with some food for thought: What would your biggest regret be if this was your last day of life?

Until next time!

Anujeet.

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