NEW YORK − When Susan Rahn dies, she wants a party.
The 55-year-old grandmother from Webster, New York, has Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.
Rahn considers herself lucky for having lived far beyond her expected lifespan at the time of her diagnosis over a decade ago, thanks to advances in medicine. That allowed her to watch her son, now 27, graduate high school, then college, and start his own family. Rahn regularly babysits her two granddaughters. In May, they went to Disney World for Rahn’s birthday.
Rahn’s cancer has spread to her bones and lungs. Though she doesn’t know when she’ll die, she knows the cancer will be suffocating. When death is close, she’d like to leave everyone with happy memories.
“We have a lot of choices when it comes to life,” Rahn said in an interview. “When it comes to navigating what our death looks like, there’s really not very many choices. And a lot of time, the choice has been made for us.”
