"Tea with Jesus"

At home, I have a whole book of toasts, anecdotes and proverbs. These tiny nuggets of sentement help define and construct a context for life changes and transitions. One of my patients, yesterday informed me that he thought his chest pain was so bad, "I thought I was going to be having Tea with Jesus." People articulate and anticipate upcoming life events, even tragic ones with varying degrees of anxiety and even humor. The way in which they express themselves offers a doctor a window into the patient's psyche and helps us to steward them through their transition. Even if the transition is their own pending death.
Here are some of my favorite toasts and anecdotes about the end of life:

"Here's to Luck and hopin' God will take a likin' to us!"
Cowboy Dakota

"Here's that ye may never die nor be kilt 'till ye break your bones over a bushel o' glory!" Old Irish Toast

"Here's a health in homely rhyme
To our oldest classmate, Father Time;
May our last survivor live to be
As bold and as wise and as tough as he!"
Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Here's to all of us: may God love us and the Devil respect us."
Unknown

"Here's a glass to the dead already-
Hurrah for the next that dies!"
'Cholera Hymn' of the British troops in India

One toast that dates back at least a century reads;
"A toast to our Doctors. May they never become friendly with our undertakers."

Cartoon Credit: Thanks to Lawrence Gilson.