As you live your life, there will be times when the people that you love will face hardships with their health. And while some of these scares will be things that they come back from and can get healthy again after, some of them will result in a decline in their health and their ultimate death. And while knowing that you have some time left with your loved one can be a blessing, it can also be extremely hard to cope with. So if you have elderly loved ones in assisted living facilities or close friends who’ve just been given a scary diagnosis, here are three tips for coping when a loved one’s health takes a turn for the worse.
Prepare To Grieve For An Extended Period Of Time
Although you might think that the loss of your loved one will hurt less when you can see it coming, this isn’t always the case. So even though you’ll have time to think about and partially prepare for their death, you should also be preparing yourself for an extended time in the grieving process after they are gone.
To help you in preparing for this, consider how you can get your life setup so that you can operate with minimum effort for a while. This might include taking some time off of work, stepping back from some of your community obligations, and preparing your home so that things like meals and cleaning can be simpler for you to do.
Do Or Say Those Last Few Things Together
One thing that many people struggle with when a loved one dies suddenly is that they wish the last thing they said had been something different or that they’d had a chance to do one final thing together. But when you know that their death is imminent, you can better plan for these things.
With this in mind, try to think about what are some of the few last things you’ve wanted to say to or do with your loved one, and then make sure that you’re able to do those things in the very near future.
Help Them Set Up The Atmosphere They Want
For most people, they want the atmosphere around them at their death to be peaceful and loving. So if this is something that your loved one has expressed, you can help to make this possible for them as they get nearer and nearer to dying.
While this can make the reality of the situation difficult for you to accept, by honoring some of your loved one’s last wishes, you both can feel a bit more peaceful about what’s happening.
If you have a loved one that you know will be passing on soon, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you through this emotionally challenging time.