Something to Think About

Dying isn’t about the disease a person has. It is about the emotional, communal response to the person dying from the disease. It doesn’t require medical intervention. It requires comfort...

 Know that all of these signs of approaching death, whether indicating months or weeks, are just guideposts. Some people will show all of them...

Unfortunately, children die. We are born, we experience, and then we die. That's the name of this game called life...

What is normal is the person may be talking BUT they won’t be making sense. They may be talking to people you don’t see or hear. Yes, I believe our...

There are signs that we look for that indicate a person who has entered the dying process has months, weeks, days, or hours to live BUT not everyone “plays by...

I’ll say again we are a planet grieving. What does grief look like? Grief is an emotional expression. It comes out in the way we have learned to express our...

Grief is whole bunch of normal emotions rolled up into a package we call grieving. It isn’t new emotions. It is our emotions. It is how we have handled everything...

"When do we say our final goodbye to someone who is dying?" Barbara Karnes talks about how we say goodbye in stages. We say goodbye many, many times.  

Hospice works at home for you. It provides support, guidance, and education but even more it provides understanding, concern, and heart felt caring for you, the family, and your support...

Counseling is a support offering, a choice. Some personalities would never consider counseling. They would not be comfortable sharing their personal thoughts and life with someone else no matter how professional...

...Then a physician says “I can’t fix you. You are going to die sometime soon”, it is generally not said so bluntly. Actually often it is not said at all....

When someone has told you you can’t be fixed, that sooner than you expected you will die, your reason for living, your purpose, that which fills your time each day, is...

... if we would educate ourselves before we need the information, before someone we care about is dying, before we are faced with a life threatening illness, or before someone we...

Zooming is certainly helpful but know as she progresses toward death she will not be able to respond, even to know you.  Continue the zooming and talking to her even when...

I get a lot of letters like the one I’ve edited below. We, as a culture, are so unprepared for witnessing a death. We have no accurate role models. We...

 Know that all of these signs of approaching death, whether indicating months or weeks, are just guideposts. Some people will show all of them...

We believe from all signs that death is rapidly approaching. Then one morning they seem to actually wake up. They are less confused,  they want to eat, or get up....

There are so many reasons your father could have been receiving medicine by a “needle”. I am not fond of IV or giving medication by a “needle” as end of...

First, what is meant by “dying person”? In the months before death most people really don’t believe they are dying. “Other people die, not me. There will be a cure,...

Our children are not supposed to die before we do. I cannot think of any grief more intense than watching our child deteriorate before our eyes. We grieve their dying...

Sudden death by accident, suicide and certainly by violence intensifies those normal grief responses. Everything we feel with normal grief is as if we are being held under a magnifying...