“Please Let Me Die!”

 

He wrote these words with trembling hand,

His plea for death, his last bold stand.

Ninety-one, in pain and fear,

His family had to close their ears

 

They flew from every distant place,

Yet grandpa’s plea they must erase.

He'd wrote his plea, so plain to see —

But no one dared to set him free.

 

“Please let me die, please let me die,”

For happiness has passed me bye.

Not on and on in senseless pain,

I know that joy won’t come again.

 

My assistant told me all she dared,

Her grandpa's plea for no more care.

She understood, yet stood aside,

Tradition kept them trapped inside.

 

At 90, my mother knew she was done,

A timely death was now welcome.

She made her choice in mountains high —

Thank God she died, cries not denied.

 

She said, “I’m ready.” And I replied,

“If you want help, on me rely."

Three weeks later she was gone —

I cried with tears she’d not suffer on.

 

“Please let me die, please let me die,”

For happiness has passed me bye.

Not on and on in senseless pain,

I know that joy won’t come again.

 

Two hundred million souls today

Are wishing life would fade away.

That rivals all who died in war —

Let’s not pretend, let’s not ignore.

​

We worship persistence, never quit,

We say God's gift means suffer it.

But when joy has left without a trace,

Why should we hold onto this place?

 

The purpose of life is joy and thrive,

Not pain that keeps our shell alive.

When suffering is all we own,

Let’s honor death as our way home.

 

Had I helped her die, then faced a court,

I'd tell that judge with a straight report:

Yes, I broke the law to stop her pain —

Jail me if you must, I'd do it again.

 

“Please let me die, please let me die,”

For happiness has passed me bye.

Not on and on in senseless pain,

I know that joy won’t come again.
 

The world calls wrong what wisdom knows,

The law ignores what suffering shows.

The cruelty lives in ideas that blind,

A horror done by messed up minds.

 

So let us dare to shift the tide,

This suffering from our eyes not hide.

When life holds nothing left to give,

Love means more than making them live.

 

“Please let me die, please let me die,”

For happiness has passed me bye.

Not on and on in senseless pain,

I know that joy won’t come again.