Primary Sources

A Remarkable Death

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Not everyone gets to die like Laura Mankamyer — surrounded by love in her own home, at peace with the plans made, the care received and whatever lies ahead.

On her last day, she still heard stories about herself, smiled and ribbed others in a whisper. Her room with the big bay window looking out on the back yard in the Hunting Ridge development was still a living room, not a dying room.

From some combination of personal determination, family bonds, religious faith, Marine training, hospice care and a medical support team that helped her let go, she died the way virtually any rational person would want.

But then, death is so rarely rational.

A beautiful story of one woman’s fight with cancer.