family stories on making choices

I was just talking the other day about how little attention the good work of hospice is given.   I forgot that Steve Lopez has been doing a series on death and dying -- and the choices that families have to make.  In essence, he has been sharing his family's story, but he has also been talking to professionals and other families as well.  These articles are often hard to read -- I can only imagine how hard it was to write.  In any case, the latest installment as he waits with his siblings and mom at his dad's side for death to take him.

Here's another well done story on the decisions families have to make. In this case, families and close knit communities have to decide on whether or not to let the fracking happen in their backyards, literally.  The reporter, Neela Banerjee, does a fantastic job of portraying all of the sides -- though there is some special care with the 16-year-old who dreams of being a dairy farmer.  Well worth the read!

One more that I have to share in its entirety because the link won't last:  about families, or what is left of them, having to decide to leave their homes in order to live.  These are dangerous and complicated times -- or have they always been?

Asylum Seeker Lost 6 Relatives to Violence 

ABQnews Staff/Albuquerque Journal/Published: Feb 8, 2012

U.S. immigration authorities have granted political asylum to Saul Reyes Salazar, who has had six members of his family of Mexican activists die from violence in that country, the El Paso Times reported.Reyes Salazar was granted asylum by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services three weeks ago, but he waited to announce the action until Tuesday the first anniversary of the kidnapping of one of his sisters, Maria Magdalena, who was found dead several days later, the Times said.
"Now that we have this documentation, we're going to re establish our lives, look for a new future, open a bakery," Reyes Salazar told the Times by phone from California on Tuesday. "But we're not going to forget our siblings' fight for human rights in Mexico. We will not stop seeking peace and justice in Mexico so others don't have to go through what we have."
Reyes Salazar is the most recent Mexican activist to receive political asylum, the Times said.
In the past four months, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has granted asylum to Mexican journalist Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco, activist Cipriana Jurado and slain activist Marisela Escobedo's daughter in law Monica Arias, the paper reported.