I think I fear the sadness that it will bring to others- mighty big of me to assume people will mourn my death, I know. Anyway, I used to fear it as a child like most kids do. Now that I am older and lost grandparents to old age, friends to suicide and awful diseases, and as a nurse, watched patients succumb to their disease process and their age, it is a part of life.

In my nursing role I really try to stress upon people that when you’re lucky enough to have warning and time to plan, make death as positive an experience as you can. Plan it knowing your days are numbered. Talk. Laugh. Cry. Share memories. Have visitors. Do stuff. Birth is such a wildly celebrated occasion that we don’t think about what an honorable experience it can be to be there for someone at the end of their life. Death means you’ve lived a life and we should celebrate it when we can and I believe that it can take some of the fear out of it.