A terminally ill Missouri mother is heading to Switzerland to end her life before her illness makes travel impossible.
Gail Hendricks, a 79-year-old mother of two from Cape Girardeau, has been battling terrible complications from lupus and interstitial lung disease for the past four years. Friends say it doesn't seem like she's near the end, but she says she knows she isn't.
“My friends will say, 'But you don't look, sound or act like someone who's dying,' but I am dying and I want to be in control,” the former HR professional says. He recently spoke to local news station 12 KFVS.
“I don't want to get to the point where I'm like, 'This isn't living, this is existing,'” she said, adding that she is hooked up to an oxygen machine and can only walk short distances. “I've had a wonderful life and I want to maintain my dignity as I move on to the next stage.”
Hendrix, a retiree from North Carolina, had always been active and busy before his devastating diagnosis, his daughter, Charlene Foreste, told the station.
“She was always working three jobs or traveling somewhere, a concert or a festival,” Foreste said. “She was always busy.”
Hendrix said she loved hiking, traveling, walking and cycling, and she always took Foeste to concerts when she was young, fostering a love of music in the next generation.
“I'd love to say I'm a poet, a painter and a musician, but I have nothing in those areas,” Hendrix said with a laugh. “So I guess I started walking because I can walk. I'm an avid walker and I was walking three to five miles a day… every day until about three years ago.”
That's when she realised she was ill, her mother told the station.
“I was getting more and more out of breath,” Hendrix said. “Even on flat ground I was breathing hard.”
Before she became ill, Hendricks had been involved for decades with groups such as Compassion and Choice, a Colorado nonprofit that advocates for and works to expand access to euthanasia.
That's why she knew she wanted her own personal exit at the right time.
“It just feels like the right thing to do,” Hendrix said. “People don't feel comfortable talking about death.”
The daughter doesn't agree with her mother's decision, but she supports her mother nonetheless.
“My mom and I are polar opposites. We're polar opposites in every way really. We always have been,” Foeste said.
“My mother always walked at her own pace. You don't have to agree with people, but you do have to love and support them.”
Just a few days later, the mother-daughter duo boarded a plane to Switzerland, where Hendrix plans to take her own life on September 26th.
“She's a very practical person and she's always addressed issues and challenges head on,” Foreste said. “It's going to be tough, but she knows that, and she definitely knows what to expect and what the end result is going to be.”
Hendrix, meanwhile, wants to make sure he gets the deed done before illness prevents him from traveling.
“When I started to see it getting worse and worse every month, I knew it wasn't as good as last month,” she said. “That's when I knew if I wanted to do it while I could still walk, I had to do it soon.”
Several US states have assisted suicide laws, but all have residency requirements, the agency said.
The two exceptions, Oregon and Vermont, state that life expectancy cannot exceed six months.
“I don't want to wait that long,” Hendrix said. “I don't want to get that sick.”
Hendricks already knows the procedure: A doctor will put an IV in her arm, the first drug will put her to sleep, the second will shut down her body.
“It will only take five minutes,” she said.
Her body will be cremated and her ashes will be shipped back to Missouri.
She says that despite the crucial nature of her performance, she is not nervous.
“I was just sitting here explaining this and thinking, 'I don't sound like a clinician, I don't sound like I'm talking about my own death,'” she said, “But that's because I'm very comfortable with my decision.”
But that doesn't ease the pain her family feels.
“This is a big loss. It's a big loss for us,” Foeste said. “It can't go back to the way it was before. It can't go back.”
“I can't say I agree with my mother's decision. I don't,” she added, “but it's not my choice. I love her and I support her. There's no way she would have done this alone.”
“It was hard, but I was blessed to have her as a mother,” Foeste said.
