Something to Think About

We often replay the final moments of a loved one’s life — the sights, sounds, and emotions that felt so overwhelming. In truth, dying is rarely the peaceful scene we...

After being present at so many deaths, I’ve come to believe that we die the way we’ve lived. Our personality doesn’t change because we’re dying. Dying is the last part...

End-of-life care isn’t just clinical. It’s deeply personal. Before we can guide others through death, we must understand our own beliefs, fears, and experiences. When we face death honestly within...

Clear communication is one of the most powerful tools in healthcare. Healing begins when we sit close, speak simply, and remember that care is about people, not just disease.

Most of us imagine dying will be quiet and peaceful, but real dying often looks different. Nothing bad is happening — the body is doing the natural work of letting...

As death approaches, taking a blood pressure is one more unnecessary intrusion for the patient and for the family. Will what you learn affect anything?

Relationships are challenging. We don’t always get from them what we want or need. As death comes, the yearning for what we didn’t get or have with this person increases...

Healing is not just about the physical body. We are mental and emotional beings that have a physical body.

September 18th is the two year marker of my husband’s death. Do I say anniversary? It sounds rather celebratory to use that word...

Grief affects us all in one way or another.— the loss of a job, the loss of a friend, of a relationship, a physical death. We all carry the scars...

It is hard to comprehend that our special person will die no matter what we do. No matter how many treatments, how much medicine, or how much food we give,...

Why do we hang on to life so desperately? Because it is all we really know. Yes, some of us have spiritual beliefs, that talk of “another life."

Doctor’s office visits for health issues are scary, often confusing, and too often complicated with medical terms we don’t understand. And we are generally ill or have health issues that...

Dame Cicely Saunders — an important and influential physician, nurse, social worker, and writer in end of life care — established a specific facility to care for those people that...

So often I have walked into a room when family is standing at the side of the room, watching. Watching their special person dying...

I’m going to share with you the thoughts of last night so you can get a picture of how this daily review works for me. Hopefully you will think it is...

First, there is no perfect relationship. Life is a learn-by-trial adventure. It’s hard work, not always smiles and happiness.

What do you say to someone to get them to accept hospice? Well, one thing to say after explaining the services hospice offers is to ask what they think will...

Everyone dies. Death will not be conquered. It can be forestalled and that is where the medical model comes in. We learn through trying. The medical rounds physician is correct...

I think most of us live our life on a gerbil wheel, just going round and round, doing the same routines, just going through our days. We don’t think about,...

It will never be “okay” for someone we care about to die, to leave us. We will always want those we care about to stay in our lives...