uld want to die'. Marks diminished health has not diluted their life together. Nathalie states 'I have thought about the meaning of life and to me it is about the chance to be together as a family, and savoring the small things'. ' You can't break someone down into bits, a brain, a beautiful pair of eyes, it is much deeper than that'.
             In the summer of 1997, Mark was admitted to hospital for five weeks after a severe chest infection that ultimately cost him his voice. This was when his doctors began talking of 'death with dignity'. Mark states, 'They did not break my spirit, but it was going down and they did not stop it'. Mark was being bludgeoned into submission, into acceptance of his death. To resist the pressure to surrender to death has required enormous energy. Mark was told that he would die from the chest infection. The only other option open to him was a tracheotomy and never talking again. Mark had to have a ventilator and was told he would probably never come off it. Mark was given an hour to make a decision. Mark went ahead with the surgery and devised a way of communicating by blinking. One blink for yes, two for no. Mark's final words to Nathalie before the operation were 'Tell them I walked in here and I am going to walk out'. The attitude on Mark's ward was that he was the most likely to
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