Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004), born with what she called “a great desire to help,” transformed the way the world thought about death and dying. Her best-selling book On Death and Dying (1969) gave language to what many quietly understood: dying is a process.

In working with the terminally ill, she described five main stages:

Denial — when a patient says “not me” and is unwilling or unable to accept a diagnosis.

Anger — when the thoughts shift to “why me?” as symptoms such as weight loss and pain make denial impossible.

Bargaining — a campaign to delay the outcome: “I’ll change if…” or “Why now?”

Depression — a season of self-grieving once it becomes clear that bargaining is not working and goodbyes must be made.

Acceptance — a quiet readiness to let go, with a sense of detachment, even as a glimmer of hope remains.

Known for her courage and compassion, she further developed her understanding of these stages while working with blind patients whose response to the loss of vision mirrored the patterns of grief and dying.

“I know for a fact that there is life after death,” she said in 1974. “To me, death is a graduation.”

A pioneer in the hospice movement, her milestone work helped bridge life and death, teaching that grief and dying are normal, human experiences. She helped the healing process with a message of hope and dignity. In her 1997 autobiography The Wheel of Life, she said she wanted her own passing to “come as a warm embrace.”

“My only wish has been to leave my body, like a butterfly shedding its cocoon, and finally merge with the great light.”