@k8sMum : I wish you every ease and comfort, and I thank you for sharing your story.

What I have been pointing out time and time again during this conversation is that people are being short-sighted and not viewing the reality of death with an open mind and with a rational perspective. I am not referring to people as being hysterical for disagreeing with me. I am all for difference of opinion, but when people are resorting to personal attacks and insulting others for expressing a point of view that they may disagree with is counterintuitive and weakens any argument that they may have to make.

In mentioning the sick, elderly, troubled, and those caught in the crossfire, I was posing a question of moral integrity to a person who has made inflammatory and presumptuous judgements as to where I stand on the matter. They know nothing of me and yet they saw fit to disparage my sense of compassion to humanity and to all of creation based on their myopic reading of my previous comments.

And there have been several comments suggesting that the boy in question is a child. He is in his late teens at the very least, but appears to be a grown man judging by his Twitter page. I cannot say with any certainty (hence why I have simply been referring to him as a boy), and it isn't relevant, really (given his unfortunate circumstances), but we are not discussing the wishes of a dying child here, so I have at no point intended to suggest what a child should consider to be important under such circumstances, which is what you have touched upon in speaking about your relationship with your daughter. Obviously the needs, wishes, and priorities of a child are quite different to a person that has come of age.

I would not describe your situation with your daughter as trivial by any stretch of the imagination. Superficially, yes, she was a Harry Potter fanatic, but the important thing to take from this is that it was a means by which you two have bonded, and that is something precious. The tragedy of your circumstances is that the dreams that you have both had have been unfulfilled (that is, to see the story to completion), so I completely understand why this is so important to you.

Similarly, I try to bond with my sister (who suffers from physiological/intellectual disabilities) through Pokémon for example (I bought her a 2DS with Sun version). She's very slow at it, her poor mobility and coordination makes it difficult for her to use the circle pad (she also has strabismus; i.e. permanently cross-eyed), but she is halfway through the game and I am very proud of her for doing it herself. I also hope that it will improve her reading as she has been out of school for 13 years now and does not actively read literature.

Once again, I thank you for sharing your story, and I doubt that it will be of much consolation, but I hope your heart is spared of pain and anguish.