Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, author of On Death and Dying, passed away at the age of 78. On Death and Dying, written in 1969, introduced the concept that terminally ill patients go through stages in accepting their own death.

She pioneered hospice care after working with dying hospital patients whose plight she considered intolerable.
As for her own death, she was in the acceptance stage for years, said her son, Kenneth Ross.
“For her, death wasn’t something to fear. It was like a graduation,” he said Wednesday.

While Dr. Kubler-Ross postulated that “acceptance” is the last stage of grieving, her own attitude and actions prior to her own death speak to the possibility that there might be one more: smokin em while you got em.

In a 2002 interview with The Arizona Republic, she said she was ready to die: “I told God last night he’s a damned procrastinator.”

She felt that way until the end. But she made sure to enjoy her last moments by smoking cigarettes from Sarah Ferguson, Britain’s Duchess of York, and by eating Swiss chocolates and shopping, said Ross.