Peter McQuaid was scheduled to die the following Monday, but first he wanted to see a priest. His wife, Connie, was apprehensive. The Catholic Church had staked its opposition to medical assistance in dying, the course Peter planned to take.
As she put it, "MAID is not for everybody." Still, she reached out to a priest she knew. He agreed to come to the McQuaid home in the town of Souris, P.
E.I. He heard Peter's confession in the living room and anointed him with oil, a Catholic ritual known as the sacrament of the sick.
"He felt as part of being a priest, he was to be supportive of the person in their journey, in their life, not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with what their decision was," Connie said in an interview. "And I thought, 'Oh, this is just what we need to hear.' We just felt like he was supporting people.
Peter wasn't asking his permission, but he just wanted that peace with the church." Peter McQuaid, facing the prospect of a dreadful decline from Alzheimer's disease, chose an assisted death in February 2020. But the priest who agreed to visit a few days prior and give the sacraments also made a choice, whatever his misgivings, and those of his church, with MAID.
Peter's funeral, officiated by another priest, was held in the local Catholic church, an imposing gothic revival sandstone building on the north side of town. He is buried in the graveyard across the street. Connie McQuaid is shown by the gravestone of her husband, Peter McQuaid, in Souris, P.
E.I.,.