Graeme Cooper and Danielle Kellan were transporting an elderly woman to the palliative care unit of a hospital in Hervey Bay, Queensland, when she made them a simple request: she wanted to see the ocean one more time before dying.
They didn’t hesitate. The two paramedics diverted the ambulance toward the coast and stopped the stretcher in front of the water. They stayed there in silence as she looked at the horizon she had thought she would never see again.
The Queensland Ambulance Service later said that there were tears among the team and that the patient ended up “euphoric” about the gesture. The photo of that stretcher by the sea, taken on 24 November 2017, went around the world — and today it still reminds us that sometimes dignity fits into one last sunset.