In “The Final Journey” in Cure magazine, contributing photographer Beatriz Terrazas and Cure editor-at-large Kathy LaTour document the final six months of 64-year-old Judy Abernathy’s life.
Abernathy invited CURE to join her family as they began moving toward the end of her life from metastatic lung cancer.
They follow Abernathy’s visits to a palliative care physician, report on her decision to stop a clinical trial so she could continue to be part of her family, describe the effect her illness has had on the family and document the steps she takes in hospice care.
“I have tried to stay on top of everything because when you go to sleep you don’t know if you are going to wake up,” Judy says lightly. It’s clear she is trying to begin the final discussions she wants to have with her children.
The Web site includes a eulogy written by Abernathy’s granddaughter – a journalism student – and features about hospice and palliative care and an article about controlling pain in cancer patients.
