Dying alone often has a negative connotation. That’s probably why films portray it as depressing and tragic. Conversely, dying in the company of loved ones is sometimes seen as a positive death.
Although a number of palliative care nurses felt they would not be in favor of dying alone, Caswell found that for some older people, “dying alone was not automatically seen as a bad thing, and for some older people it was even preferable.
They said it was better than having their independence curtailed or being placed in a nursing home.
According to Lizzy Miles, a palliative care social worker in Columbus, Ohio, and author of “Somewhere In Between: The Hokey Pokey, Chocolate Cake, and The Shared Death Experience”, older people can die alone.
In the palliative medicine and hospice blog Pallimed, she argues that people who choose to wait and die alone can do so because they care about their loved ones.