My husband and I had a robust conversation the other day after his recovery from the common cold. We discussed the differences he and I have and men in women in general in regards to physical suffering. My husband of 36 years is more the vocal complainer where I like to skulk and suffer in silence. We talked about how each sickness, injury or mental assault could be used as a trial run in preparing for our Death. W

Death goes in and out of fashion. The topic goes dormant for a few years, and then someone calls it forth again: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross with her disciplined “On Death and Dying” in 1969; Susan Sontag with her angry but profound “Illness as Metaphor” in 1978 and the empathetic follow-up “AIDS and Its Metaphors,” in 1988; Derek Humphry, with his suicide handbook “Final Exit” in 1991; Sherwin Nuland w