January 13, 2026

By Jamie Towey

Friends, what a year we just had here at Aging with Dignity.

I am so profoundly grateful to wake up every morning at our little non-profit and come to an office where each person truly buys into our mission. Our staff: some married, some looking, one expecting his first child, one with grandchildren, two on their first and others on perhaps their last; and yet all glow with that indelible aura of purpose that comes from doing what our founding inspiration, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, described as something beautiful.

This animated sense of purpose gives me hope, a word we don’t hear too much amid the onslaught of sweeping technological, social, and political changes in our world. But I mean it – there’s hope for a better tomorrow for aging in America.

Everyone loves a Letterman Top Ten. But since many don’t even remember who he was, and given the whole “five” thing we’ve got going with Five Wishes, we’ll roll with a “Top Five” List of achievements of Aging with Dignity in 2025:

1. Our Five Wishes reached 1,150,000 Boy, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that number! Imagine it – last year 1.15 million people held a Five Wishes in their hands, or filled one out on their laptop, or reviewed one with their family gathered around the kitchen table. On top of that, we trained over 13,000 healthcare workers on advance care planning and had over 5,000 organizations partner with us to get this important document into the hands of so many. Over 2,000 Catholics purchased our Finishing Life Faithfully guide, and who knows how many people benefited from that.

2. Our groundbreaking video on Eileen Mihich, the young woman who tragically lost her life to Washington’s assisted suicide scheme, despite not being eligible for it, has been seen by over 250,000 people in less than a month. As Ian McIntosh, the intrepid director of Not Dead Yet so eloquently put it, “To the assisted suicide proponent question: ‘Where is the evidence of abuse, coercion and error?’ The Tragedy of Eileen Mihich is an emphatic: Here it is!” Eileen’s story will echo in the state legislatures across America as people fight the spread of this terrible practice, thanks to the tireless efforts of our team here at AWD to get the facts and story right.

3. In February, we launched Assisted Suicide Watch (ASW). In less than a year, its impact can be measured by how the physician-assisted suicide resistance is growing in America, including in the halls of Capitol Hill. We put out a comprehensive white paper on PAS legislation that has already been cited by other researchers, and we’ve put out several other products that have been viewed by many. ASW has received media coverage from various outlets, including my webinar appearance with Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and on national network EWTN.

4. If you’ve gone to our Aging with Dignity website in the past year, you’ve noticed the amazing difference in its readability, navigability, and usefulness! We didn’t just put some lipstick on our site, we completely redesigned it so that now you can search for articles, find my dad’s blog, or sign up for our weekly emails without any hiccups. We also overhauled our fundraising platform. We take no money from the government and aren’t funded by the health care system players so we can advocate for individuals and their families. Yet we have never changed the price of Five Wishes, and so we humbly rely on the goodwill of others to keep the lights on. Our new website and fundraising platform show you the respect you are owed. To the hundreds who supported us this year, THANK YOU. And by the way, the new Five Wishes website launches this month!

5. Finally, our message of hope got out there this year. More than it ever has. Views on our YouTube channel alone increased by 560%, with nearly 300,000 views this past year. Even without the Eileen video, they increased by 300%. Views, impressions, and follows have increased on all of our social media platforms. But we’re most proud of our in-person connections with people across the world. People flocked to talks from Jim in Baton Rouge, Pittsburgh, Cary, Milwaukee, DC, Dallas, Albuquerque, Naples, Miami, Ghent (Belgium), Dublin (Ireland), Rome (Italy), Calcutta (India), and more. Our Five Wishes President Paul Malley met personally with countless folks at conferences in Denver, Orlando, Tampa, and DC, and I found myself in dozens of offices and coffee shops all across the DC area building relationships with key players, from the White House to Capitol Hill, the Business Roundtable to the Milken Institute.

We have big plans for 2026 as Aging with Dignity enters its 30^th year. You’ll hear more from me on this in the weeks ahead. For now, a hearty thank-you for helping us have such an amazing 2025. Our future shines bright; how could it not? Even if some in our culture assert that life has no purpose and that dignity is an illusion, that doesn’t make it true. The truth always wins, and we at Aging with Dignity are proud to stand on the side of the truth that all of us bear the Divine image and are meant to love and be loved. We will continue this year to bring that truth to more people than ever before.