As a palliative care nurse, I have been privileged to be with many people at the time of their death. People of different ages, nationalities, professions and family histories, in homes, hospitals and aged care facilities. Dying is hard work, perhaps the hardest we will do; although living through the death of a person we love might be the toughest task of all. And yet on the faces of people close to death and those around them, I have seen not just fear, sorrow and pain, but smiles, winks, joy and flashes of pure love, too. This writing is to share just a few of the many profound moments I have witnessed in my work, which I believe speak to our human dignity in a way that euthanasia and assisted suicide never could.