Death

I'm reading a book by Etty Hillesum entitled Letters From Westerbork.  It's a collection of letters Hillesum wrote while at Westerbork concentration camp during WW II.  It was actually a deportation camp where the Jews were housed before being sent to Auschwitz.  She was a part of the Jewish Council (which has it's own moral issue discussion) so was able to move about freely for a time.  But, eventually she too, began to see that she would be joining the others being sent to Auschwitz.  Conditions grew worse and Hillesum wrote this as she knew her time was at hand:

What tens and tens of thousands before us have borne, we can also bear.  For us, I think, it is no longer a question of living, but of how one is equipped for one's extinction.

In today's lesson for the Beth Moore Living Beyond Yourself I studied ten characteristics of the crucified life.  Number 9 was "You must accept that death is painful."  Moore quotes a nurse, "If there is an awareness at the time of death, there is pain.  Simply said, death hurts."  Now, I've thought about this and I'm hoping that the nurse isn't referring to just physical pain, but is also including the emotional pain.