Something to Think About

From the moment of a diagnosis of a life threatening illness we begin grieving. We grieve not just the eventual losses that come with serious illness but the approaching...

Often after a person dies we forget that there is no perfect relationship, that there are easy times and difficult times. Somehow once a person dies we elevate them to...

I suggest writing a letter to the person that died and saying from your heart what you need to say that you didn't say before. I recommend that you write...

We can be as much at a loss when our pet is dying as we are when a person is dying but there doesn’t seem to be the support and...

Hospice can not take the experience and sadness of a loved one dying away. Our goal is to help the family create a sacred experience, to help their loved one...

My message throughout all this time has been to educate, educate, educate. Educate anyone who will listen about how people die. To help people understand how death comes, what it...

From the moment of a diagnosis of a life threatening illness we begin grieving. We grieve not just the eventual losses that come with serious illness but the approaching death...

There have been many changes in hospice care since it began. Some for the better, some not so much. What I am suggesting as representing a “good” hospice is becoming...

When we die we work to leave our body. That work begins months before death from disease actually occurs but we only really see the work happening when death is...

...not telling a person they can’t be fixed is taking away their opportunity to do and say that which is important to them. It is taking away their ability to...

What do I mean by being "gentle" with yourself? I mean forgive yourself forall the things you feel guilty about. Remember we always do the best wecan with the information...

We need to look at the promises made, evaluate them as to: can it be done, should it be done, and am I willing to do it? 

Dear Barbara, Please talk about unexpected youth death. In our minds we understand, that as sad as it is when an older adult dies,they have lived their life and death...

...There is no perfect relationship. There are good times and difficult times. Sometimes the difficulty we have with the person that is dying keeps us from being at the bedside....

Death for those who work in end of life is not failureor the enemy. It is the ending of the work we do. Our satisfaction in thedeath of a patient...

In normal grieving, time begins to lessen the intensity of the emotional pain of our loss. There is a process to grief (see My Friend, I Care) and although we never forget...

First, lets define “No Code”. The simplest explanation I found was Googled from the Free Dictionary http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/no+code“a note written in the patient record and signed by a qualified, usually senior or...

We are generally very tired, physically and emotionally, by the time our caregiving is over. Our thinking processes are not what we are used to. We are tired, weepy, aimless,...

...Children and their grieving process is affected by their age and their maturity level.  We all grieve, no matter our age, but our understanding of this normal life experience varies...

First, let’s not judge a person’s grief by their words or actions. We don’t really know what is going on inside this person...

Grief is a reaction to loss. Loss equates to a death, a death of something or someone. Death comes in many ways, many forms. There is the death of a...