Explain the line “He died for another week in that public ward, in his private room of pain.”

In context, hospice afforded Keller with a place to die, sharing the pain he felt was impossible. There was nothing to be done except to make him comfortable, what he was actually aware of or physically feeling was unknown.

My role was unclear. He was aware of my presence from time to time; he might even accept the odd spoonful of soft, mashed food. I wanted to ask him many things, wanted even to tell him of Henisch, of what I had heard in Vienna … but any conversation beyond a description of his immediate needs was impossible.