The Woman in the Room

by Stephen King

Narrated from the perspective of a man burdened with deep remorse, pain and his inner demons, the story concerns his decision to euthanize his terminally ill mother with painkillers.

This story first appeared in Stephen King's short story collection, "Night Shift".

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Audiobook, American, Tragedy

14 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[BookHunter M ُH َM َD · Rating 3 out of 5]

عن القتل الرحيم
و لكن هل هناك حقا قتل رحيم?

أى رحمة هى فى انتزاع الحياة من جسد يتألم?

هل هو عمل أخلاقى حقا أم أنه جريمة?

فى حين يتنصل الطبيب من هذا الفعل يتصدى الإبن لمهمة تخليص أمه من الآلام و من الحياة معا

رابط مجموعة وردية ليل التي وردت فيه القصة

[Ryan Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

القصة العشرون والأخيرة من وردية الليل
قصة مؤثرة إلى أبعد حد.
لم يكن فيها رعبٌ تقليدي، بل كان هناك رعبٌ من نوعٍ آخر، وهو أن ترى أمك تعاني الألم والشلل والسرطان، ولا تستطيع أن تفعل شيئًا يخفف عنها معاناتها. فهذا الموقف من أكبر مخاوفي في الحياة.
لكنني، رغم ذلك، لا أبرر ذلك الفعل الإجرامي في نظري، مع إدراكي أن هناك اختلافًا كبيرًا في الآراء حول هذه القضية.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story 3.5 stars**
Audio 4 stars**
Narrator John Glover

[Rana · Rating 3 out of 5]

القصة العشرون من وردية الليـل،

القصة مؤلمة جداً ، لدرجة إني همتنع عن حكي أحداثها ..

هل من حق الإنسان إنه ينهي حياة شخص قريب منه لو كان شايفه بيتألم ومفيش أمل في شفائه؟ أي رحمة في قرار زي ده؟!
وإزاي الإنسان ممكن يقدر إنه يكمل حياته بعد القرار ده؟ إزاي هيعيش مع عذاب الضمير؟
وجعت قلبي جداً ، وماكنتش أحب النهاية تكون بالشكل ده ..

بنقص نجمتين لأن النهاية كانت قاسية جداً بالنسبالي ..

[Yasmine Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

The question is: can he do it?
The answer is : yes, he can and he did.

King started the short story with a question, one of the hardest question ever in the human history was and still is.

Johnny and his mother in this story answered yes.
but would i?
Would you ?
Answer the same or would you absoultely refuse and it would be a definite No with no second thoughts.

When i put myself in johnny's shoes watching my loved ones suffering daily with no hope of getting better and i can't do anything to help them or ease their pain it's the hardest thing ever but i won't do it.

Not only from the relegious point of view but also from the ethical one.

It's a crime, i can't call it mercy-killing, it's a murder and in the story it's also an assisted suicide.



I think johnny thought of doing that when he no longer saw the woman in the hospital room no.312 as his mom anymore.

Maybe he thought he doesn't want her to suffer anymore or release her from the paralized body she is trapped into , I can understand his motives but i don't agree with him.

He could have done his best effort to be there for her , to cherish every moment left for her with him , to take care of her till the end , and when the time comes she would leave peacfully knowing she is loved and she will always be loved.

[Rinda Elwakil · Rating 3 out of 5]

أبريل ستيفن كينج
ستيفن كينج وأبريل
وريندا، هل ستفعلها وتنهي أعماله -المترجم منها-
قبل نهاية الشهر؟

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man burdened with deep sadness has to make the ultimate decision. He has to choose between illegally euthanizing his mother with painkillers to set her free from the cancer causing her unimaginable suffering, or let her die slowly the natural and legal way at the cost of what remains of her sanity and her will to live. Remembering every good and bad memory he ever experienced with his mother, he’s forced to choose what he believes is right for her.

Like Last Rung on the Ladder, this the second story in Night Shift that’s more of an emotional slice of life story rather than the usual creepy weird stuff. It deals with a very heavy topic that hits close to home for anyone that’s ever lost a parent.

[Jason Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I guess lightning can strike twice in the same book. This is the second normal story in Night Shift, and there are only two.

In this a man contemplates mercy killing his terminally ill mother whom he loves. It hit home for me because I've watched people become a mere shell of their former selves, and wished I could ease their suffering, and the only way I could come up with was euthanasia. I've never done it, for the record. I used to consider myself to be a rather horrible person for even considering it, but I eventually realized that such thoughts and feelings had a foundation in love, and that makes it a lot easier to bear. It's still no reason to go off killing friends and family members, though. I could really relate to the main character's predicament since I've been there, and that made this story that much more... "enjoyable" isn't the right word, and damned if I can come up with it right now.

Sometimes in life there are no easy choices, and every option carries a heavy consequence. King portrays that magnificently here.

[Marc-Antoine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Playlist

Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas

[Es the Book Hoarder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really enjoy this one. I think it felt quite generic, and it was quite cold, if that makes sense, so I didn't really connect with any of the characters. I don't necessarily think that we fear sick people, I just think that sick people, particularly dying people, remind us of our own mortality, and a lot of people fear death, which is understandable because it's an unknown.

I appreciate the writing style in this though, the breaks of thought are a sort of reflection on Johnny's state of mind I think, flitting back and forth from various parts of the reality he's living- the doctor's opinions, his own worries about his mum, his mum's illness, his brother's passive responses. Also, nobody likes hospitals, especially on wards where everyone is dying. It's totally depressing.

I think having watched his mother deteriorate over time is why he makes the decision he does. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can understand why he would want to do it and see it as helping her. I also think she knew what was happening when she took the pills.

In the end, sad as it is, she is just another woman in a room, perhaps to everyone apart from Johnny, maybe in the end, even to him.

I gave this a 2.5 of 5

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen King's excellent Night Shift ends on a downer with this one. It's far from a bad story; it's effectively sad and depressing, and you can definitely feel King's angst towards the loss of his own mother. But, being about a man euthanising his cancer-stricken mother, it's a bit too depressing to really like that much.

[Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars. This was just boring.

[Bushra GM · Rating 2 out of 5]

قتلتني كلماتُه ، وصفه ..

لاأستطيع أن أغُض البصر عن بطل المرأة في الغرفة ، ابن المرأة ذاتها القابعة في المستشفى

ابنُها الذي لازمها طوال معاناتها ومرضُها ، لينهي حياتُها بيده ، كيفَ فعل ذلك ولما ومالدافع ، شيء لايستحق الذكر بتاتاً

في إحدى زياراتهُ لها ، وكما العادة يُحاول أن يفرحها ويتأكد أنه لازالت أجزاء من جسدها تتحرك ، طلب منها أن ترفع بيدها اليمنى فرفعتها وسقطت مرتجفة أو كما وصفها كهليكوبتر فقد توازنه ، طلب منها أن ترفع اليسرى فرفعتها وسقطت بسرعة كذلك ، إلاّ أنه فرح كثيراً من استجابتها
وطلب منها أن تخرج من كيس وضعهُ فوق سريرها ، منديلاً . بالفعل رفعته ، وكان سعيداً جداً ، إلاّ أنها أدارت وجهها للناحية الأخرى وقالت :

-السنة الماضية كنتُ قادرة على سحب درجين مليئان بالصحون بهذه اليدين .

آلمتني كثيراً كلماتُها ، نحنُ لانعرف متى وكيف سنفقد كُل مانملكه اليوم ، نحنُ لانشكر الله كما ينبغي ، لنستحق كُل هذا الكم من النعم ، في جوارحنا وأرواحنا .. حياتنا لم تكُن لتكون أفضل لولا رحمة الله .

في هذه الغرفة 213 وهذا اليوم ، قرر ابنها أن يقدم لها 6 حبات شديدة السمية ، يضعها في فمها ويبتسم لها مع كُل حبة ، امتزجت المادة الجيلاتنية البُرتقالية بطعمها المر ، مع بياض لسانها الذي أدمن الإسبرين.

قالت له : أعتقدُ أنني سأنام الآن ، لطالما كُنت ابناً صالحاً جوني .

خرج من الغرفة التي لاأعرف كيفَ قرر دخولها مع حبوبهِ تلك ، شربَ ورجع

عادَ وهيَ نائمة ، وعروقها منتفخة، ارتجفَ ، وقبّلها .. يالا التناقض

كيفَ يجمع بين شعور الخوف والحُب .


لكِ نجمتين ، لأنكِ امرأة لم تُربي ابنها ليُفرّق بين الحُب ، والخوف

بين الأمل ، واليأس

أشعر أنني أتحدث لأبطال الرواية ، لم أقرأ لستيفن كينغ ولاأريد أن أحكم عليه من المرأة في الغرفة ، آلمتني كثيراً والله :(

[Josh Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story about a man who decides to euthanize his terminally-ill mother. This is an important story because it’s about the real-life horror of mortality and struggles with the ethical dilemma of speeding up nature’s process. Is it murder or mercy?

The Woman in the Room also seems autobiographical. The main character has a mother dying of cancer and whose only sibling is adopted. King’s story is the same. It’s a story that King seems to have written out of his own personal grappling with wanting his mother alive and well, but also wanting her process of pain to be over. That personal element shines through. There is no good ending, in the end. Only messy shades of gray. It’s a beautifully haunting story.

[Markeisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

What kind of ending was that! UGH!!

[Shreyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Woman In The Room' by Stephen King.

There was not a chance in the world for smart talk. He had discovered on that day and for all time that there is nothing in the world so perfect to set a twelve-year-old's impression of his place in the scheme of things into proper perspective as being beaten across the back with a wet grandmother-diaper. It had taken four years after that day to relearn the art of smarting off.

Rating: 3.5/5.




Review:
This story hits hard. As a physician and an intensivist, I have seen a fair share of deaths on my watch, and yet, I had a difficult time reading this story. People often think that physicians and other healthcare professionals usually grow numb to the concept of death after having seen a lot throughout their careers, but it hits hard when it happens to someone close to them.

I have often seen Stephen King's books being marketed with the tagline "his words have power." And it seems they truly do. Within a few lines, he transports the reader to the world and the time mentioned in his stories. I felt myself being there in the hallways of the hospital and could smell the typical smell of the hospitals and taste the bitterness of the pills. I could sense the main character's sorrow as he watched his terminally ill mother suffer for days, weeks, and months. And I could see myself sharing the same dilemma as him – whether to go ahead with euthanasia or not. I don't know what I would have done had I been in his place. And I don't even want to think about it.

It is a darkly depressing tale, one that assures tears the more you think about it. I'm not sure if I would ever have the guts to read this short story again. Nonetheless, it is a brilliantly written tale that caps off Stephen King's first-ever collection 'Night Shift'.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A son struggles with the choice of whether he will euthanize his mother to release her from the horrible pain she suffers due to cancer.

On page one the reader figures out what this story will be about. The remaining pages put us, the reader, in the head of a man tormented with the fact that his mother has a cancer riddled body and her remaining time on Earth will be filled with pain and agony. Is he being a good son by releasing her from this pain? Can his conscious live with that decision? How about if he avoids it altogether and the pain drives her insane?

These thoughts and emotions take over our narrator's day-to-day activities, knowing he can only move forward in his life once he decides: will he or won't he help his mother die?

I give this story a thumbs up. I wouldn't call "The Woman in the Room" horror in the traditional sense.

For people that have had sick or ailing relatives in medical care, having the weight of the decision to keep fighting or to make things "comfortable", they would say horror is an accurate description for this type of story. Individuals who have been in this position likely count their blessings or carry a guilty conscious, blaming themselves, depending on how their decision affected the life of that loved one.

This is a quick read, so if this story's premise captures your interest, pick up a copy of King's "Night Shift", flip to the last story in the collection and read on. That way, you can see how this short story ends.

[Asheley T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

This one didn’t excite me at all. In fact, it’s really tragic and sad. A man visits his mother in a hospital. She has wasted away and is near death. He thinks about having to continue to visit her in this same manner vs ending her life with pills. He has reasons for his thoughts. He does a lot of thinking about things.

The thing that resonated with me about this story is that I could relate to this guy, with his feelings of guilt and sadness over this woman’s deterioration. Also I understand that feeling that comes with knowing that nothing will get better, it will only stay the same or end. I can appreciate the story, but I don’t think it is right to say I liked it or enjoyed it. It just is.

A bit disappointed that this is the final story in the Night Shift collection. I’ve absolutely loved this collection of stories and I had hoped the book would end with a bang.

[অমর্ত্য দাশ · Rating 1 out of 5]

a very ordinary story... don't think it's a worth story in a book like 'Night Shift'!

The story deals with a predicament faced by a middle aged man, Johnny, who struggles with his mind whether he can euthanize his terminally ill old mother or not.
King took fucking 12 pages to give the answer to the readers which is the only suspense, or whatever you say that so, I've found in this story; otherwise it's a boring & prolonged story.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original to Night Shift

[Dipika Bangera · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short tragic story about a son's decision to euthanize his mother who is terminally ill and suffering a lot.

Short but effective

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

A theee-star rating feels right for this story, as the plot locks you in a sterile room with a man watching his mother slowly waste away from a terminal illness. There are no vampires or haunted cars here, just the heavy smell of rubbing alcohol and the sound of machines keeping a body alive. The emotional stakes are grounded in the miserable reality of a son who is tired of watching the person he loves turn into a ghost. You feel the claustrophobia of the hospital bed and the quiet desperation of a guy who just wants the suffering to end. It is a grim, slow burn that focuses on the internal rot of grief rather than big scares.

Stephen King wrote this piece during his famous blur of high output and heavy drug use, and that frantic energy is all over the page. It feels like a fever dream caught in a hospital ward, born from a mind that was clearly firing on too many cylinders at once. You get the sense that King was trying to process some deep, dark fears while trapped in a chemical haze. The result is a piece of fiction that feels raw and a bit unhinged. It is a strange, messy look into the early career of a man who could not, or would not, stop writing.

The writing has a jagged, restless quality that keeps the mood appropriately bleak and uncomfortable. King skips the usual bells and whistles to focus on the grime of the situation, and the contrast between the quiet room and the loud thoughts of the protagonist is sharp. It is a slice of misery served without a side of entertainment.

A lingering sense of disappointment follows the ending because the story is just too depressing to actually enjoy. There is a specific kind of sadness in seeing a master of horror tackle a real-world tragedy without any of his signature flair. You finish the last sentence feeling drained, mostly because the bleakness does not lead to any sort of meaningful payoff. The rating reflects the fact that while the writing is competent, the experience is a total downer that feels like a byproduct of a very dark personal era.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really affecting. I wasn't really looking forward to this story due to the subject matter as it makes you seriously consider your mortality, and this succeeds in that. It pretty much deals with assisted suicide for the old and disabled. I was feeling quite introspective while reading this and almost wanting to apologize to someone I had a recent argument with; maybe I will..

This is just such a touching short story and one of the best I've read thus far. Highly recommended in Night Shift collection. WOW.

[DarkStar's Book Cavern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very short story and quite poignant as to what King himself was going through at the time in his personal life. It's sad and just shows a snapshot of human life coming to an end. After all, we all want to die with a bit of dignity.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

esperava mais.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it

[Delanie Dooms · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Woman in the Room" is now most commonly found in Night Shift, a work which proudly advertises itself as "excursions into horror" by the acclaimed author, Stephen King. I wouldn't call this story a horror story, however; it is more of a depressing tale, attempting to cobble together the thoughts of our protagonist into a cohesive story about euthanasia. Unsurprisingly, committing the act is far more difficult than thinking of it, and King delves deeply into themes surrounding the topic from the perspective of an emotionally-attached family member. If I were to give my take, I feel as though Johnny's actions are unjustified. I am pro-euthanasia; if someone wishes to die and there is no hope for recovery, then that person should be able to take their own life. What upsets me about what Johnny does, however, is that he does not ever ask his mother about what she wants to do, and, by the end, we are given a rather noncommittal "she kept eating them, my friend; she never mentioned the pills to me, sir" style contrivance, which is to say -- we do not know if she wanted to die or not. We get a glimpse that perhaps she might have given the okay, but it is not truly an affirmation; we must take it on faith that we can construe her smile and her chewing to be the same as her internally thinking that she wants to end herself. Analyzing Johnny's character, too, we see that he wants to do good by his mother, but, surprisingly, and, rather frighteningly, King ends the story with this passage:

"He goes home and waits for the phone to ring and wishes he had given her another kiss. While he waits, he watches TV and drinks a lot of water."

Instead of giving that kiss, he fakes her fingerprints on the pill bottle, and rubs off his own before racing out of the room; it is a deadly pragmatism in favor of his life even to the expense of final loving farewells. Quite dark, I would say. One might ask me: "why is it that you do not accept her confirmation but do accept her death?" I would reply: "a physical effect is more easily identifiable than the inner workings of a person; he gives her well over the amount of pills she needed, and her weight was so low that her death seemed inevitable with them in her system. I suppose she could have been saved or the pills have not worked -- and that would be a fine interpretation -- but I will interpret this way."

Like in many King stories, he uses cultural context as well as more universal human emotions to tell the story. For example, Johnny notes that men in "johnnies" look to be wearing dresses; he specifically thinks that the women look fine, but, for the reason above, the men do not. King here is emphasizing the difference to 'regular' society whilst also inevitably dating himself (men in the future of America, and men in the past of America, will and have worn dresses). I speak of America here because I am America -- and so is King -- but also because this cultural norm is only present in certain countries, one of those countries wherein it is a vogue being America. This gives the story a personalized appearance: Johnny is himself a person with his own foibles and triggers, and these come out as the story progresses.

[Krissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, the days when you could smoke in a hospital room… wait, were there days when you could smoke in a hospital room?!

This story is exquisite.

Not in the sense that it is a fun or an easy read. This story is not enjoyable in the least. Some might say it is not even horror, but it is most definitely horror. Horror of the most human and devastating kind. The horrors of this story are plentiful, from the slow motion march of the dying to their graves to the hysterical laughter echoing from the over-caffeinated nursing station, or the “ectoplasmic music” oozing from transistor radios.

There is the horror of the present overlaid on the past, which is still accessible enough in time to recall when this day had not and might not ever come, and yet it has. Time has gotten out of control. She’s losing sense of it. Her minutes pass in days. She cannot control the pain.

His mind drifts in and out. Present to past. He is losing sense of time as well. The world continues to move around them.

“The house is still running; the refrigerator runs and shuts off, the furnace kicks in and out, every now and then the cuckoo bird pokes grumpily out of the clock to announce an hour or a half.”

The horror of the mundane. The horror of time marching on. Of trivial things continuing along their normal routine oblivious to the devastating reality of the life that surrounds them.

He is holding on yet letting go. He stands in the present, evaluating the future which roars toward him with increasing speed, one foot clenched by the sentimentality of the past.

He visits his mother. The scene is surreal, like a Dali painting, everything skewed, disintegrating around him. Room mates come and go but his mother stays. Her pain continues. It will never end. It will get worse every day. The most trivial things, the stretching of time in all directions counting each second as an eternity… it is a horror.

“She’s really dying quick now, as if she had a train to catch out there in nullity.”

And so he does it. He does the unthinkable and feeds his mother a fist full of pills. He sat watching for so long, fearful that she would die, holding on, clenching her love tightly to himself. The one who startled at her every movement is also the one that lets her go.

She is his mother and yet she is not. She is there and yet she is not.

This story is full of juxtapositions.

In the end, he lets her go and leaves her to die alone, unable to watch.

It is most definitely a horror story.

[Michael Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lost my mother to cancer. I have also worked with the elderly, and helped them to pass in comfort.

This short story is a painfully brutal story, but one that is tender, and honest, and unflinching in its emotional detail.

Some may say this isn't horror. But it is. This is horror at its most relatable.

I may not read this one again, but I've lived this story, and it's one that needs to be told.

Read it. Weep it. Learn from it.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather sad, but very thought provoking story, something that at some point in time all of us must face. Not just our mortality, but the mortality of our parents and loved ones. How would we react? we want the best for our loved ones, not to see them in distress or pain and to be looked after, to have a quality of life and a decent end. Something that crops up in the news every so often.