Carsten Flemming Hansen didn’t wish for much in his dying days. All he wanted was to be where true happiness lies: At the intersection of a sunset and a glass of wine. Thanks to the understanding staff at the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, that’s what he got.
When Hansen, who was 75, found out he was too sick for surgery and would die within a couple hours from internal bleeding, he told his nurse that he wanted to sip white wine, smoke a cigarette, and watch the sunset one last time. His nurse, Rikke Kvist, knew how to make it happen, the Telegraph reports.
Kvist wheeled him over to the balcony and handed him a glass of wine. Then the hospital made an exception to the no smoking policy. The hospital shared a photo of Hansen enjoying his dying wish on Facebook, which is admittedly a little morbid. Nonetheless, at the time of writing, the photo and description of Hansen’s wish has 69,000 reactions, more than 4,500 shares, and more than 2,500 comments — including ones with people’s own stories of their family members’ dying wishes.
You have to appreciate the hospital’s willingness to accommodate. As the description to the shared photo states, Hansen enjoyed “a dignified death” at the hospital. It was, to say the least, a serene way to pass.
