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Having the conversation makes everything is clearer and more peaceful.

By Joanna
Posted on

I had the conversation with my family members.

To me every adult (and parents for those under legal age) should think and talk about and write down their end of life wishes.
 Having taken a class on Death and Dying in 1993 I had thought a lot about end-of-life issues and in 1994 when my  mother was dying ( of cancer at age 70) we had Hospice care. Afterwards I went to a Hospice bereavement group. Both were so helpful. Soon after that  I wrote out my own Advance Directive (I was in my 40s as did my husband and my daughter who was then in her 20s.) To me every adult (and parents for those under legal age)  should think and talk about  and write down  their end of life wishes.

In 2011 when my bio-father was 93 and dying we had talked about his wishes long before. Everything is clearer and more peaceful if you have had the conversation. Now this has become a major quest for me – to help people discuss and map out their wishes long before anyone has to make difficult decisions … because we have so many more ways to stay alive the discussion becomes even more important. I believe that death is a part of life and should be thought about with the same care and respect that any other life passage gets.  I thank the Conversation Project for all they are doing!  Joanna     p.s. Because of my own experiences and personal studies, I co-founded SustainableAging.org-in 2011.

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