Let’s Talk About Death and Dying

The subject should not be so taboo

Photo by Jeremy Lwanga on Unsplash

It’s really bizarre to me that people don’t talk about death more often, and more openly. I mean, it’s something that’s going to happen to every single one of us, and everyone we know. Yet, not too many people want to discuss it.

It’s sad losing people we love. And sometimes it’s downright tragic. But that’s grief, and a whole ‘nother subject. The subject of death, however, is not sad or morbid — it’s reality.

Several years ago, I watched both my parents die. It was awful, and they suffered terribly. I cried every single day as I watched the ravages of cancer take over their bodies. But after each of them took their last breath — within weeks of each other — I could feel nothing but relief for them.

There’s no handbook for this kind of thing, and I clumsily figured things out as each day presented a new set of challenges. There was hospice care toward the end, but not much hands-on involvement by the seemingly overworked staff. It was more like here’s a pamphlet about what to look for when the end is near, or open up that box we sent you, and just give your mom a squirt of that liquid morphine you’ll find in there.

Suffice to say, I learned a lot about end-of-life care during that time. And it sucked, because I feel my parents…