Today most people die in a hospital bed, though many would prefer to die in their own home being watched over by their loving family.
We have an old saying, “to die on a tatami mat”, meaning to die peacefully in one’s own home — as opposed to dying miserably and bedridden in a hospital while being distressed by the presence of tubes supplying oxygen and nutrients as if one was trussed up with some sort of monstrous spaghetti.
For reference, tatami is a floor mat made of woven rush which you may find in most Japanese houses. (The size of a room is quantified in terms of the number of tatamis, e.g. a 6-tatami room or a 12-tatami room.)
“To die on a tatami mat” originally meant “to end a peaceful life” without being subjected to such perils as war, fighting, fires, earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons as are rife in this country. By extension, we call a reckless person “a fellow who is unable to die on a tatami mat.”
I associate “aging in place”, a term which I understand is current these days, with “dying on a tatami mat.” But the connotation is not the same.
Are there any English-language expressions that are similar to the Japanese saying “I want to die on a tatami mat”?