TAKING GOOD CARE OF MYSELF by Ian R. MacLeod

What will hospice care look like in the future? Well, you will travel back in time and live out your final days with an earlier version yourself. To prepare us for what this might look like and feel like, Macleod gives a snapshot.

This story, at least for this reader, asks the age old question, a time loop question, of which came first, the hospice care of your dying self or the life that leads up to it?

The main character had a life. He had a job. He had a wife. Then enter the future dying version that he must care for. He loses his job. He loses his wife. He now knows the exact moment of his death.

So which came first in the time loop? Or really, does it matter? Just beware and plan. You never know when your future self will be delivered to you.

MacLeod, Ian R. “Taking Good Care of Myself.” Year’s Best SF 12. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. New York: EOS, 2007. p. 421-424