Dying grandmother granted final wish to see sunset over the beach
A dying Sydney grandmother was granted her final wish to see the sunset over the ocean with her husband and family one last time, two days before she lost her battle with cancer.
The beach at Brighton-Le-Sands was a special place for Carmen Leon de la Barra and her husband Antonio who would enjoy walks along the sand for the past 25 years since migrating there from Chile.
After finishing work at their Mascot accounting firm each evening, the couple would drink tea on the beach while watching the waves crash.
Mrs Leon de la Barra had developed terminal bowel cancer and was in palliative care in Sydney’s west. She knew she had only days to live and longed to see the sunset over the ocean she loved, with her husband by her side one last time.
Her family knew the grandmother’s last days were imminent, so they applied to charity Dreams2Live4 to make the beach visit happen, and within a few hours the wheels were in motion.
NSW Ambulance paramedics worked with palliative care nurses and Dreams2Live4 to grant the Sydney mother-of-three her dying wish. On Wednesday Mrs Leon de la Barra was escorted on the hour-long trip from Mt Druitt Palliative Care to the beach on a stretcher, complete with a thermos of tea.
The woman’s husband, children, their partners and nine grandchildren gathered by her bedside for her final journey outside the palliative care unit, before she died two days later, on Friday morning.
Mrs Leon de la Barra’s son Jose described the moment his mother saw the ocean she so loved one last time as “incredible”.
“Mum just lit up as soon as she got here and she felt the wind on her face,” he told Sunrise on Wednesday morning.
“She had been unresponsive for much of that day and some of the day before as well. And for us to see her open her open eyes and say a few words and experience that – she knew where she was immediately as she got here – and that was very special for us as well.”
The beach visit comes after a team of Queensland paramedics granted an elderly palliative care patient his final wish for a caramel sundae to enjoy in the ambulance as he was transported to hospital for the last time.
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