The Twilight Years: Thoughts on Old Age, Death, and Dying

“Growing old is a constant battle.... One has the experience of being squeezed out of one’s bodily home, and one sets out to protect oneself against it, and holds on to what one can.... But when we make an effort to grow old in the right way, which means transforming what is earthly into what is spiritual, we are working at the transubstantiation of the earth.” —Almut BockemühlWhat is it like to live to a ripe old age? What is it like to have to look after oneself in later life or to be cared for by others? As life expectancy in the Western world continues to grow and as people survive longer periods of old age, these questions every day. With great honesty and sensitivity and in poetically moving words and phrases, the author describes the experiences of an old person at the boundary of life.Shortly after the death of her nearly ninety-year-old mother, Almut Bockemühl paused to contemplate the four years of intensive care that she devoted to her mother. What happened during this perio