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This article discusses healthcare interventions during terminal pathways based on perspectives of terminally ill patients and their spouses. The discussion is based on findings from an empirical study describing how terminal ill patients and their spouses experience and manage terminal pathways and theoretical assumptions of modern and late modern death. The study is inspired by grounded theory methodology. The data is based on field studies in hospitals, in hospices, and in private homes as well as on in-depth interview courses in seven families. Patients and spouses experience terminal pathways as an existential turning point with three dimensions: decision-making, loss and development, and time. The implications for the attitudes of healthcare professionals are discussed. The conclusion is that terminally ill patients and their spouses need company during terminal pathways by healthcare professionals with a sophisticated attitude to the phenomena taboo, openness, acceptance, and control in order to combine professional knowledge with the individual experiences of laymen.

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