Mary Wilson was rapidly deteriorating with Alzheimer’s when she received a medically assisted death in 2017.
The Alberta woman was still cognitively aware and could carry complex conversations, but those chats might take an hour and a half instead of the usual 15 minutes, says her son, Ken Campbell.
She had also begun retreating from the world as the disease progressed: she put coffee cups in bathroom cabinets and spoons under pillows; she needed help getting dressed and had a loss of bladder control.
Wilson, an intellectual with three post-secondary degrees, stopped reading and started watching Disney musicals on repeat.
“Talking to my mom was like watching a beginner driver parallel park,” Campbell says of her final days.
Wilson hosted an intimate house party with family and friends before receiving MAID.
At the party she …