Marit Such

Marit Such, wife of Walter, is a once-beautiful woman who is dying from metastasized uterine cancer. Her skin, once luminescent, is now “pallid,” and seems to “emanate a darkness,” a corporeal reminder that she has become a physical and emotional shadow of the young woman she once was. Still a woman of strong resolve, however, she has decided to end her life with an overdose of her prescription morphine, assisted by her husband, after an evening of fine food and even finer wine. As the preparations for her last night continue, Marit comes to recognize both the joys and the difficulties that have accumulated over her lifetime. It is a realization that leaves her frightened, searching for a certainty from which she might gain strength for what lay ahead. Reflecting upon what she remembers as happy days, for instance, she allows “a...