Content Warning: The source text deals with issues including terminal illness, assisted suicide, and mental health deterioration, including references to depression and anxiety.

Amy Bloom and her husband, Brian Ameche, travel to Zurich together. The couple loves taking trips, but this trip is different: Brian has early onset Alzheimer’s. In spite of what they will face in Zurich, they try to travel the way they usually do. Even before Brian was diagnosed, he and Bloom were bad at directions. They often had to ask for help when navigating new places.

On the plane, Bloom helps Brian get comfortable. They order drinks and toast Bloom’s sister and brother-in-law, who paid for their Zurich trip. Bloom and Brian are going to Zurich to meet with representatives from Dignitas, “a Swiss nonprofit organization offering accompanied suicide” (4). They are one of the only places worldwide that helps individuals who aren’t terminally ill to die voluntarily.

Bloom explains that after administering several tests, Brian’s neurologist informed them that Brian has had Alzheimer’s for several years. Brian has a high IQ, but in recent days, he has been struggling to perform basic motor and mental skills. When Bloom told her sister Ellen the news, they cried on the phone together.