Facing into dying - feeling the sadness and the joy
It is over three months since Mum's diagnosis of late stage cancer. Three months since our lives changed and we started adapting to a new version of reality. The words have perhaps not quite yet sunk in, but whether they have sunk in or not, the truth is there in our day to day lives. Mum is dying and the best clinical prediction at the time of diagnosis is that she had 'months rather than years' to live. Three of those months gone already. As Doctor Kathryn Mannix says in this brilliant short video https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/dying-is-not-as-bad-as-you-think/p062m0xt 'we have stopped talking about dying and that is in fact a problem'. That is why I am writing this blog. W e have to talk about death and dying so we can take better care of the dying person, help them prepare for their death and ensure their wishes are heard and taken care of; so we can take better care of each other through the process of a loved one dying and prepare ourselves...