Elisabeth Kübler-Ross dying led to the book "On Death and Dying" in 1969. In it, she proposed the now famous Five Stages of Grief as a pattern of adjustment: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In general, individuals experience most of these stages when faced with their imminent death. The five stages have since been adopted by many as applying to the survivors of a loved one's death, as well. Kübler-Ross encouraged the hospice care movement, believing that euthanasia prevents people from completing their 'unfinished business'. In 1977 she persuaded her husband to buy forty acres of land in Escondido, California, near
The Stages of Life a woman who leans toward both children with her right hand raised. These five figures correspond to the five ships visible in the harbour beyond. The three groupings of figures (one aged man, two adults, and two children) echo the positioning of the ships at various distances from the shore as allegorical of the stages of life, and closeness to death. The central ship is thought to represent the mother, while further inshore, two small boats—references to the two children—have only just begun their voyage and still remain in shallow, clear water. To the horizon, the farthest ship disappears into