Death might be the most difficult thing in life to face.

Although no one likes to think about it, we’re all going to die. That’s the inexplicable and inescapable reality of life.

In that most difficult time for all of us, we need to be comforted. That’s why we need hospice care, because, as Jody Deegan, the Hospice of Southern Maine CEO, put it, no one wants to die alone in pain.

Hospice of Southern Maine is hoping to build its first hospice house – a home for those who are in the final months of their lives – here in Scarborough. Hospice has some property on Hunnewell Road, where the organization wants to build a home with 18 beds.

The project is facing opposition from neighbors who feel the home is too large for the small residential neighborhood. They believe the home would bring too much traffic to the road and the building would be an ugly addition to the neighborhood.

These neighbors have legitimate concerns, and Hospice and the town should work to make sure this project is suitable for this neighborhood. Ultimately, however, the need for a Hospice house in Southern Maine outweighs the concerns of these neighbors.

Maine ranks 49th in the country in providing hospice care, according to Medicare. Only Alaskans have less access to hospice care.

Hospice care could benefit 40 percent of all dying patients, according to National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. However, nationally, only 25 percent receive hospice care, and in Maine, only 9 percent receive it.

Compounding the problem, studies have found that Maine ranks poorly in other palliative and end-of-life care.

Statistics aside, however, the need is also quite personal. Anyone who has watched a loved one die in pain in a hospital knows why this type of care is so important.

Although many people would prefer to die at home, many people do not have the resources or the support to do so, even with the assistance of Hospice. Some dying people have no family to care for them at home, and others have family members who are physically unable to care for them at home.

Some people need to spend time in a Hospice house before they return home, and others might need to spend short periods of time there to receive treatment for pain or other symptoms. Some dying people have no home.

There is really no doubt that there is a need for an inpatient Hospice facility in Southern Maine. The only question that remains: Is Hunnewell Road in Scarborough the place for it?

A hospice house would work well in Scarborough. It would be a good match with Maine Medical Center’s growing campus along Route 1.

The neighbors to this home argue that it doesn’t belong in a residential neighborhood. Hunnewell Road resident David Hughes said he believes a Hospice house with 18 beds for patients and all the accompanying staff members and visiting family members belongs in a commercial area.

The problem is that hospice would then be in a more institutional setting. That’s not what hospice care is about.

The hospice house would be set back from the road with trees and bushes to block it from view. If the building is positioned properly on the five-acre property, it could be less of an eyesore than a housing development in the same place.

“Our goal is to make it feel as much like a residence as possible,” Deegan said.

It should be a home among other homes, and it can and should be on Hunnewell Road in Scarborough.

Brendan Moran, editor