Dealing with Grief and Fears

Death and dying are not popular dinner topics. In fact, there are few circumstances in which society considers it to be appropriate to talk about our mortality. Read More

Over 30 years ago, I had the honor to work with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. At the time, concepts like palliative care and hospice care weren’t well known. In fact, through her book, “On Death and Dying,” it was Elisabeth who started to bring the conversation about death and dying into the open. Read More

On the surface, saying that dying matters, seems so obvious that it’s not worth mentioning. After all, what could be more important than our mortality? We are here on this amazing planet for such a short period of time. Death is the ultimate destination that, in many ways, gives our lives meaning. Read More

We all know that it is incredibly difficult to know what to say to someone who is dying. At the same time, as women over 60, we also know that there is no way to avoid these conversations. After all, when a friend, partner or family member is faced with a terminal diagnosis, they need our support. We just have to hope that our words do more good than harm. Read More

I am a city girl. Born in London, I only had one brief experience with rural life, as a child, in Canada. The rest of the time I lived in cities like Denver, Seattle, Dallas, New York City and London. Read More

It is a somber moment when someone mentions that a friend or family member has gone into hospice care. After all, hospices have a bit of a dark and dreary reputation. Read More

On the surface, the concept of planning your own funeral sounds pretty depressing. After all, who wants to admit that they are mortal? Even those of us who accept the fact that we will one day no longer be on this beautiful planet, don’t like to think about it too often. Read More

Most of us don’t think about palliative care until someone that we love needs it. In some ways, this is natural. No-one likes to think about their own mortality and it is even harder to imagine someone close to us suffering. That said, there are many reasons to talk about death, even if we are not yet directly impacted by it. Read More

At some point in our lives, each and every one of us has a fear of death. This is completely natural. Perhaps you first thought about your mortality when you lost someone close to you as a child. Or, perhaps you started thinking about death as a teenager. Read More

Ok, I have a confession to make. As much as I know that it is counterproductive, I often find myself thinking about death. Read More