A terminally ill woman decided to hold a festive goodbye party before ending her life.
The woman of California, who was wheelchair bound, suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
She decided to take advantage of California’s new law that allows doctor-assisted suicides.
However, Betsy Davis, 41, decided to invite her friends for a weekend during which they would all spend time together and say goodbye to one another before she took her life.
Davis sent out invitations via email to her friends and family in which she explained the purpose of the party.
In the invitation, she wrote: “These circumstances are unlike any party you have attended before, requiring emotional stamina, centeredness, and openness, and one rule: no crying.”
About 30 people came to the party at a home in the picturesque Southern California mountain town of Ojai.
As the weekend drew to a close, friends of Davis kissed her goodbye and they took photos with her. When everyone left, Davis was wheeled out to a canopy bed on a hillside, where she took a combination of morphine, pentobarbital and chloral hydrate prescribed by her doctor.
She slipped into a coma before she died of the drug overdose. May she rest in peace, Amen.
Her sister, Kelly Davis, said that although the gathering was emotionally very difficult for her, she loved her sister’s idea for the gathering and she supported her decision to take her own life in lieu of suffering.