Personal story

VRNW Member Responds to Seattle Times Article about WA’s Death with Dignity/MAID Law

February 9, 2023 February 9, 2023 / Death with Dignity, Medical aid-in-dying, Personal story, VSED

Recently, retired newspaper photographer Peter Haley penned an editorial in the Seattle Times: “State’s ‘Death with Dignity’ law failed my wife.” In his piece, Haley wrote that Toni, his “beloved wife of 27 years,” was forced to die alone because Washington state’s medical aid-in-dying (MAID) law doesn’t cover ALS. Toni chose to die on her …

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Let Me Tell You about my Mother

November 15, 2020 April 5, 2022 / Personal story, VSED

Hi. I’m Kate, daughter of Jane, who is the reason I’m here in more ways than one–“here” as in the world, but also “here” working with VSED Resources Northwest. My mom, with the support of most of our family, chose to end her life on her own terms in February 2020 by voluntarily stopping eating …

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Who We Are: Nancy Simmers

January 27, 2021 December 1, 2021 / Personal story, Who we are / 2 Comments

RN, Death Doula, and Co-Founder & Coordinator of VSED Resources Northwest Years ago, as a returning Peace Corps Volunteer, I applied to nursing school envisioning my life calling as a midwife. A self-proclaimed feminist, I was sure that women’s roles would drastically change during my lifetime, but that pregnancy and childbearing and reproductive choices would …

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Who We Are: Josselyn Winslow

February 12, 2021 December 1, 2021 / Personal story, Who we are

Co-founder of VSED Resources Northwest and Dementia Support Northwest In May of 2019, two friends whose husbands had recently died, a death doula who had worked with our family, and I gathered to talk about VSED. We decided that it was important to get word out that there was a compassionate end-of-life option for people …

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Who We Are: Andrea Fenwick

March 2, 2021 December 1, 2021 / Personal story, Who we are

Death Doula, Social Worker, and Hospice Volunteer My desire to support people in end-of-life choices and to work in this field originates from the experience of my mother’s death to ovarian cancer when I was 15 and she was just 39. This experience was shrouded in isolation with no one speaking about the “elephant in …

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Poem by Kate Vredvoogd

November 9, 2021 December 1, 2021 / Personal story, VSED / 2 Comments

The following poem was written by Kate Vredvoogd while being present with and sitting at the bedside of her beloved father, Bruce Vredvoogd, during his 11 day VSED process. Kate is a writer, photographer and teacher of the English language. Her website is www.wanderlustwords.com. My dad is the trickster, the quiet careful listenerwho hears the …

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VRNW Member Responds to Seattle Times Article about WA’s Death with Dignity/MAID Law

Let Me Tell You about my Mother

Who We Are: Nancy Simmers

Who We Are: Josselyn Winslow

Who We Are: Andrea Fenwick

Poem by Kate Vredvoogd

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