Bella Silverstone Character Analysis

After Bella Silverstone falls and snaps both her fibulas, she and her husband Felix move to a nursing home floor for better care—until Felix recognizes how much she benefits from being in her own home and moves her back. Here, Gawande demonstrates how crucial that decision was. Even though it was theoretically less safe and more difficult to move Bella back into her home, the positive change is also key. The move helps both Bella and Felix regain the crucial autonomy that they lacked on the nursing home floor. Even though they didn’t necessarily have more control over some aspects of their lives, they were able to dictate what was most important to them: sleeping together, being together, and sharing a home together.

The fact that Bella dies just four days after this ordeal is tragic, but it emphasizes the necessity of identifying priorities in cases of serious illness or injury. Bella didn’t know that she would die soon after getting her casts off, but Felix identifying the things that mattered to Bella was crucial in allowing her to die where and with whom she wanted. And more than that, as Gawande suggests, being able to honor her priorities enabled Felix to feel good about the decisions he made, too, buoying his heart even at a time of great loss. Thus, allowing people to die in the way that they want can help both those who are dying and also their loved ones.