Long roads lead Justine Betteridge to another life nearing its end. She drives past convenience stores and petrol stations, high-rise apartment towers and houses with drawn curtains. On the front passenger seat of her sedan is an empty box of tissues, as she navigates the twists and turns ahead.

She has weary eyes, a generous smile and ropy arms curled round the steering wheel. She doesn’t like driving – sitting still in traffic is the worst – but it’s part of the job.

Justine, 51, is a palliative care worker, who visits up to 10 terminally ill patients a week in their homes. Her part-time job with HammondCare, an independent Christian charity, takes her across much of Sydney’s northern suburbs and beaches.

Her patients have all chosen to die at home, rather than in a hospital. It’s an end rarely realised in Australia. A draft Productivity Commission report, released in June, found that while about 70 per cent of people want to die at home, less than 10 per cent do so – largely because of shortfalls in community-based palliative care services.

Some people die within days of seeing Justine. Some she gets to know well over weeks spent together in their bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens.

Many are too ill to speak or move, lying still in a rented hospital bed while she massages their feet. Some, she sits with in the sun. They talk about what little life they have left and their fears for those left behind. About their dreams and regrets. About the family photographs hanging in the hall.


Justine says it is a privilege to spend time with the dying, to be allowed into their life, and their loved one’s lives, at a time when they have no time to spare. When they are at their most vulnerable and bare, when they are most in need.

Her work takes her to homes where cancer, heart disease, serious illness and dementia have claimed residency. All these journeys lead to a life in its last moments. All roads lead to the final destination.