Events

This Compassion & Choices program will provide participants with an overview of options for end-of-life care that exist for people with a serious illness diagnosis. Participants will learn what legal documents are required to ensure that they get the care they want — and are spared the care they don’t want — should they be unable to speak for themselves. 

Supporters of New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act will gather at the New York State Fairgrounds to demand that lawmakers take action to stop the suffering and pass New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act when they return to Albany in January for the 2023 legislative session. Supporters begin arriving around noon and should bring handmade signs, pictures of loved ones who may have suffered at the end of life, and wear yellow and/or blue (Compassion & Choices T-shirts if you have them, if you don’t, please email ny@compassionandchoices.org to order yours today!) RSVPs encouraged but not required. 

Oneonta native Joanne Tubbs Kelly (OHS class of 1969) will give you an overview of the issues covered in her memoir, “Walking Him Home: Helping My Husband Die with Dignity,” which tells the tale of husband’s journey with with medical aid in dying in Colorado. All are invited to join in this potentially ‘lively’ discussion of medical aid in dying, which New York legislators will be considering when they resume their legislative session in January.

This Compassion & Choices program will provide participants with an overview of options for end-of-life care that exist for people with a serious illness diagnosis. Participants will learn what legal documents are required to ensure that they get the care they want — and are spared the care they don’t want — should they be unable to speak for themselves. 

Supporters of New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act will gather at the First Universalist Church of Rochester to demand that lawmakers take action to stop the suffering and pass New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act when they return to Albany in January for the 2023 legislative session. Supporters begin arriving around noon and should bring handmade signs, pictures of loved ones who may have suffered at the end of life, and wear yellow and/or blue (Compassion & Choices T-shirts if you have them, if you don’t, please email ny@compassionandchoices.org to order yours today!) RSVPs encouraged but not required. 

Author Joanne Tubbs Kelly will read from her book, “Walking Him Home: Helping My Husband Die with Dignity” and discuss the peace that Colorado’s Medical Aid in Dying Law offered her husband and her family when her husband used the law to die gently on January 11, 2020.

Andrea Dukakis will interview Joanne Tubbs Kelly about her new book, “Walking Him Home: Helping My Husband Die with Dignity,” which is based on Joanne’s personal experience with her husband, Alan. Since her husband’s passing, Joanne completed the “Cause to Pause” training program focusing on contemplative end-of-life care. She is a member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance.

Join us for a free, thoughtful discussion in “The Parlour,” each first Tuesday of the month via Zoom.

November’s Parlour discussion features Joanne Tubbs Kelly, the author of “Walking Him Home: Helping My Husband Die with Dignity.” It is the kind of book — written from the viewpoint of a spouse — she wishes she’d found on a bookshelf when her husband, Alan, chose to end his suffering using medical aid in dying. When Alan was diagnosed with a rare, fatal, neurogenerative disease, he was clear he wanted to choose his own end-of-life path. Joanne faced an impossible choice: support Alan in his desire to maintain control over the end of his life, or do all she could to keep him alive for as long as possible. Told with honesty, humor, and love, Joanne’s journey challenges us all to revisit our values and beliefs about end-of-life decisions.

Join us Sunday, October 23 at 9:30 in a talk by Joanne Tubbs Kelly, author of “Walking Him Home: Helping My Husband Die with Dignity.” Joanne will talk about her experience with her husband, Alan. She’ll share the joys, struggles and pain of helping her beloved end his suffering using medical aid in dying. All are welcome.

Joanne Tubbs Kelly will be in conversation about her memoir, “Walking Him Home: Helping My Husband Die with Dignity,” with Rev. Scott Schell, who was also present for her husband’s death. Get your questions answered and your books signed!

Moderated by Mitsuo Tomita. I shared the story of Alan’s experience with Medical Aid in Dying and Julie Stroud talked about the death of her father.

Rev. Bob Drake from Compassion & Choices explains the fundamentals of Colorado’s Medical Aid in Dying law, and I share the story of Alan’s death.

Join Amanda Meier, Volunteer Department Supervisor for TRU Community Hospice and Project Coordinator for the Conversation Project of Boulder County; Linda King, who helped pass Colorado’s End-of-Life Options Act in 2016; and Joanne Kelly, whose husband, Alan, used the provisions of the act to end his life in January 2020.