When the time came to grant his wife’s final wish, Herb Myers took the bottle of pills from his safe and went to his home workshop and set it on the flat surface of the table saw. With shaking hands, he pulled apart the capsules, one by one, and emptied their contents onto a dinner plate.

Not all of the secobarbital came out cleanly, so he used a drill bit to scrape inside the capsules. The pile of powder grew so slowly that for a while he feared there would not be enough, and in a final surge of denial he almost believed she wouldn’t go through with it.

But after 90 minutes and 100 pills, a substantial amount of the drug lay before him, and he poured the bitter substance into a plastic bottle and added a few ounces of a sweet sports drink, a flavor his wife had selected the night before. The pharmacist had offered to mix the solution but Herb, uncertain it would ever be used and fearing that there might be a shorter shelf life once the drug was mixed, said he’d take care of it.

But later, he regretted losing even that hour and a half that he could have spent by his wife’s side.

Read more at denverpost.com.

AURORA, CO – MARCH 23: Herb Myers holds a photo of himself and his wife Kathy, who recently became the first known individual to end her life through the recently-passed aid in dying law, at his home on March 23, 2017 in Aurora, Colorado. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

RJ Sangosti

AURORA, CO – MARCH 23: Herb Myers holds a photo of himself and his wife Kathy, who recently became the first known individual to end her life through the recently-passed aid in dying law, at his home on March 23, 2017 in Aurora, Colorado. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

RJ Sangosti