Something to Think About

QUESTION: How long can a body sustain without food and only take in nutritional liquid supplements? Because there are many influencing factors my answer won’t be definitive but I can...

I received an email from a woman I have been corresponding with for a year or so. She is struggling with caring for her mother in law, in her home,...

Questions Concerning Grief What are some of the feelings that a spouse expresses after their husband or wife passes? At first, most are just numb: they cry and are surprised...

QUESTION: Talk about denial. All of us deny the realities of life to some degree. The operative words here are “to some degree.” Some of us rely on denial more...

Question: Who decides it is time for you to die? Do we have input to this? Do we control our passing? I don’t know the answer to those questions. I’m...

Question: My 87 year old father has cancer and about six months to live. He will not tell his wife (my mother) or my sister who lives close by and...

We live inside of our bodies so it is no secret to us when death from disease or old age is close. We may not share the knowledge with anyone...

Frequently I will hear a person say “I am ready to die,” “I just want to die,” “Why am I not dead yet?” or “Why is this taking so long?”...

I have been at the bedside of many, many people at their exact moment of death. Those people have taught me what happens in the hours to minutes before death....

QUESTION: Please write about when a person is approaching death and they see or ask about people who have already died. In the weeks before death from disease a person...

Question: How do you handle your personal struggles when you have a family member or friend placed under hospice care and you are a hospice professional? How do you deal...

QUESTION: As toxins build in the body because your body isn’t working right anymore, what signs are there that you are shutting down? Stage 4 liver disease, hepatitis C. I...

QUESTION: Would you write about dying from Alzheimer's? There is a reason Alzheimer's is referred to as “the long goodbye.” From diagnosis until death it is generally a very long...

After food and sleep, the third area to look at to see if a person with a life threatening illness has entered the dying process is their social interactions with...

There is a saying, “Live each day as if it were your last.” It makes sense that the last day of our lives is the day we would want to...

QUESTION: Talk about dying at home, in the hospital, or in a hospice care facility. I think it is fair to say that most people, given the choice, would like...

Many physicians are reluctant to recommend hospice. It is sad and confusing why they would not give their patients the guidance and comfort that trained hospice professionals can offer. Maybe...

Write something to the living who are young and dying. Signs of what are to come ect... I put these two questions together even though they came from different sources...

Question: Is there anything a person can do to help family members break through denial? Boy, is it unpleasant to be the truth-teller to a person who isn’t ready to...

Question: I have been diagnosed terminally ill with lung cancer and liver cancer. I am not at this moment yet, but wonder, how long? No one can be specific as...

People with unpleasant personalities while living will still have unpleasant personalities while dying. It is just that the closer to death they get, the less energy they will have to...