By Sarah Samarbaf
The doctor stood by the door. “You can live longer,” he told her.
Hazel looked at him. “You are just offering me some additional time to suffer.”
“We can manage the symptoms. Come on. Don’t give up, Hazel. Please.”
She smiled faintly. “I love life too much to mistake it with just surviving.”
He stared at her, disappointed.
That evening, beside her glass of water she found an unlabeled bottle and a note: ‘I won’t be part of what you no longer consent to endure.’
Hazel died with dignity. And fanatics might not believe it, but the world didn’t fall apart.
Her decision.