We sat with out 94 year old father while he died all day of pneumonia – at about 8 pm we thought maybe our presence wasn’t quite enough and called the district nurses in the hope that they would somehow help him, make him more comfortable, do things for him we hadn’t. They came – 2 of them and were grumpy, brusque and uncovered him completely to wash him with wet wipes and even in that last hour of life and having had morphine by mouth – he tried to cover his willy up. An awful invasion upon the calm, warm, chatty atmosphere and they offered nothing. We knew what was right for him ourselves.
