R's rue

American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote the following poem on the day of Queen Victoria's funeral - February 2nd 1901. Victoria's death was felt around the world in much the same way that Queen Elizabeth II's passing is being felt today. The Queen's Last Ride The Queen is taking a drive to-day: They have hung with purple the carriage-way, They have dressed with purple the royal track Where the Queen goes forth and never comes back. Let no man labour as she goes by On her last appearance to mortal eye; With heads uncovered let all men wait For the Queen to pass, in her regal state. Army and Navy shall lead the way For that wonderful coach of the Queen's to-day. Kings and Princes and Lords of the land Shall ride behind her, a humble band; And over the city and over the world Shall the flags of all Nations be half-mast-furled, For the silent lady of royal birth Who is riding away from the Courts of earth, Riding away from the world's unrest ...

 Thursday also turned out to be an interesting day.  The consultant affiliated to our hospice organised a seminar workshop for the staff to explore and discuss the law relating to assisted suicide within the health care settings and had organised for an Australian medical who was a specialist in Voluntary Assisted Dying to lecture us on the subject via zoom For those that don’t know  Voluntary assisted dying  (VAD) refers to the assistance provided to a person by a health practitioner to end their life. It includes: 'self-administration' , where the person takes the VAD medication themselves (this is sometimes called physician-assisted suicide or dying), and 'practitioner administration' , where the person is given the medication by a doctor (or in some Australian States, a nurse practitioner or registered nurse) (this is sometimes called voluntary euthanasia). ‘Voluntary’ indicates that the practice is a voluntary choice of the person, and that they are...