Exclusive: Bridgeport woman heading to Vermont to die
In an exclusive interview with News 12 Connecticut, Lynda Bluestein says she is still on a mission to help others, despite her sickness.
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A Bridgeport woman who has been an advocate for medical aid in dying is now dying herself.
In an exclusive interview with News 12 Connecticut, Lynda Bluestein says she is still on a mission to help others, despite her sickness.
Jake Shannon has been caring for his dying mother for months.
"I'm proud to be next to her doing this. Again, I wouldn't want to be any place else. It's a gift," said Shannon.
Shannon and his mother's friends have been tending to her every need. Lynda Bluestein has been fighting ovarian cancer, and fallopian tube cancer. Her doctors say she has taken a rapid turn for the worse.
"You are going to look like $1 million, and you are all of a sudden going to go off Niagara Falls and it's going to be terrifying," said Bluestein.
Bluestein is going to Vermont to die.
She has reached a settlement with Vermont to allow her to become the first nonresident to access medical aid in dying because it is not legal in Connecticut.
"I've had to do all of this in a most debilitating, frightening times of my life because the state of Connecticut made it impossible for me to say, 'Oh, I've lost my ability to move comfortably and to make these decisions about what day to go. Who can take a calendar and say that's the day I'm going to die," said Bluestein.
Bluestein has been a crusader her whole life. Thirty years ago, she marched in Washington against gun violence.
She has been fighting with the state of Connecticut to pass an Aid In Dying Bill in Connecticut.
The bill has failed to pass more than a dozen times.
"Her and the medical aid in dying will be her final act and to help the cause and finish like that is there's nothing more important to her," said Shannon.
Back in October News 12 showed you how Bluestein has been promoting the concept of wind phones.
They are old rotary phones that are disconnected but allow us to grieve loved ones we've lost.
"I'd like to be remembered as someone who never thought that second best was even in the realm of possibility who always believed that you can make everything better," said Bluestein.
Bluestein says there will be wind phones with her in Vermont. So her family will always be able to call her.
Bluestein leaves for Vermont Wednesday morning.
