I recently talked to someone who has devoted her entire life to helping people die.

Her name is Anne Coker.

Anne, can I ask, what does it mean to have a beautiful death?

Well, first of all, physically, getting the balance of somebody being pain free, having relatives if possible,

and for no distress to come to them during the process.

Anne retired recently after more than 45 years as a palliative care nurse.

Her career has spanned 10 nursing homes and hospices across the UK.

She's a pro.

Anne's daughter, Imogen Savage, recently wrote a very moving piece about her mother for the

F.T. Weekend magazine.

She's been watching her mother throughout her life.

Imogen, what do you remember seeing and hearing about your mother's work when you were growing up?

I mean, I had the sense that you had this like real front row seat to the world of aging and

death that like few of us ever have, much less young people.

Yeah.

It was a kind of privileged position.

I remember just as a child going into these homes, it was always feeling a bit uncomfortable

because it's not a kind of form of communication that you learn.

You feel that you need to

to communicate in a different way and you don't you're never taught how to do that and what is

that form of communication what i think it's just it's it's much less verbal

you have to kind of present yourself as somebody who is without a guard, who's not threatening.

...