These 4 stories shared in the weeks past are only a sampling of the many ways people approach death and dying. In a profession where prolonging life is typically the main aim, death makes the practice of medicine feel ultimately futile. What is the point in preventing or treating disease and ailment, when we all know that death will eventually win out?

It is true, death is always confronting. Death is always sudden, even when it isn't. Death is always certain. But death does not always have to hold us hostage, and it certainly does not have to break our spirit. As a younger doctor, death was the enemy. Now, the enemy is suffering and pain. The enemy is the chaos that looming death can inflict on someone’s life, and the turmoil that it leaves in its wake when it passes over a family. The enemy is fear and the cure is acceptance, bravery and love.