Ullmann is a freelance writer and editor. In the following essay, she explores the meaning of a “good death” in the context of a life well-lived and how people are remembered after they die in “A Nurse’s Story.”

“A Nurse’s Story,” by Peter Baida, reflects upon the life and death of nurse Mary McDonald, who is dying from colon cancer. Mary is content with her life and calm in the face of death; indeed she knows too much about her condition because of her training as a nurse to be mistaken about the deterioration of her body. Mary knows that everybody wants a “good death,” but she is unsure what that really means. For Ida Peterson, a good death meant a “natural death,” which Mrs. Peterson believed meant she would die peacefully with...