Predicting Death

Wife M. jokes, “If you want to know if you’re dying, call Thomas [me].” Here’s an example. C. was ill in hospital. The doctors said they had scheduled some tests in two week's time. But C. was talking about death. His wife said he should quit talking nonsense, she wasn’t going to listen to it, they wouldn’t be talking about tests if he were going to die. I went to see him. I said to her, “Those tests are not going to happen. Listen to him.” She listened. This gave them the chance to say goodbye to each other -- and it brought down that wall of denial, which was very hard for him. He died well before the scheduled tests. She was deeply grateful to me for years afterwards.