Berenice looked horrified. In the group I was running, she was coming to terms with the idea that she really needed to speak to her parents about the fact they were coming towards the end of their lives…

Joan and Stanley went to visit their financial adviser, with the express intent of getting all their financial questions answered. Headed towards their late 70s, and facing a possible further two decades (or maybe more), they were concerned…

Recently, Jane Fonda, aged 85, spoke of one of the essential aspects of ageing gracefully. What could it be, I wondered – staying healthy? Keeping moving? Having younger people around you? Actually, it was none of that.

Simona was despairing “I’ve been left such a mess, I can’t believe it! How do I even begin, when it’s the very last thing I want to do!” She was expressing her horror at the myriad of things she was having to deal with after her mother had died…

One of the top 5 regrets of the dying is “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.” Given that we never know when our life is going to come to an end, it’s a really good idea to not only express our feelings, but by doing that, keep our relationships…

Many years ago, I was visiting a friend’s house, having just heard that her husband was in his last few days. She was not a close friend, but I knew them both as part of the Quaker community…

“What shall I say?” asked Howard, obviously uncomfortable about telling his 7- and 9-year-old that their grandfather had just died. They had only seen him the other day, as usual, and he had seemed his usual cheerful self…

There are two words that, generally speaking, in the Western world we don’t like to mention much. One of them you will probably not be surprised by. But the other you might well be. Given my specialty is end of life planning, you can easily imagine what…

Eugenie was telling me how wonderful she felt. This was unusual and unexpected because she was in her early 70s and had several health challenges, but on this day she told me: “Something has shifted, and it’s all because I did something…

I never thought about death much, other than as a concept, until my husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. Now, as I enter my 60th year, I’m very aware of the juxtaposition of life and death. It is simply impossible to have one without the other…