"Living to the End:" Lovelle Svart, 1945-2007

I never had the pleasure of meeting of Lovelle Svart, a fellow news librarian who worked for The Oregonian. Lovelle, a smoker since the age of 19, retired from the newspaper in 2002 after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. In June of this year, Lovelle's doctor told her she was likely to die within six months. She passed away Friday, September 28, 2007, after "taking a drug overdose prescribed at her request under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act."

In the final months of her life, Lovelle shared her thoughts on death and dying, a topic she felt wasn't discussed enough, in a series of video diaries which formed the basis for the series "Living to the End." The last entry was made less than an hour before Lovelle took the medication which ended her life.