The stories were about the choices people with terminal illnesses and their families face at the end of life, about the under use of comfort care and the lack of caregivers and of searching for a place to die.
Judges’ comments: This series is a journalistic tour de force. Writer Luanne Rife shines a bright light on a dark subject: end-of-life choices that must be made. She tells the stories of terminally ill patients in vivid and heart-rending detail. The series does a vital community service by highlighting a lack of hospice services in Virginia. Writer Luanne Rife and The Roanoke Times are to be commended for the resulting community reaction aimed at solving that problem.