Witness to the Final Hour

Rian Venter holds purple sachets, syringes and a plastic sheath that moments ago contained a lactate solution used by a doctor giving intravenous relief to a patient with a life-threatening liver condition at West Gauteng Hospice. (VOA / D. Taylor)

A cheerful ray of sun draws shadows on the window sill of a private room prepared for the next terminally ill patient at upscale Wits Hospice in Houghton, Johannesburg. (VOA / D. Taylor)

Nurse Rachel Mabena heads Diepkloof's inpatient unit of terminal patients. "They don’t communicate it, but you see the fear in their faces, in their eyes." (VOA / D. Taylor)

“Sister" Snowy Nkoana has served dying patients in the shanties of Munsieville for more than 40 years. “It’s breaking my heart," she said. "HIV is still very stigmatized here, so some people don’t go to the clinics for the ARVs …I beg them to take their pills…”  (VOA / D. Taylor)

In the dusty alleyways of Soweto's beauty salons and barber shops, the subject of death is taboo, said a barber who serves patients at Diepkloof Hospice. ​(VOA / D. Taylor)

Caregivers find a child's death the hardest. Venter says the children remain alive in his dreams. “I can sit there for hours and I can silently cry if it’s necessary, if I feel that need." ​(VOA / D. Taylor)

A Deipkloof staff member silently passes rooms where small changes occur in a patient's breathing as death approaches. "That is the death rattle," said one caregiver. (VOA / D. Taylor)

Benches in a garden of remembrance are warmed by the afternoon sun. Plaques have turned them into memorials to some of those who have died at Johannesburg's Wits Hospice. ​(VOA / D. Taylor)