Chit Chats When you Know the End is Near
Maybe you just received the news you’ve waited your entire life to hear. The end is coming for your aging parent and it’s time to prepare. What do you do? What do you say? How do you handle the emotions that are brewing inside knowing each minute, each hour, each day is precious with your aging parent.
First, the road to the end is not going to be easy. After all, we all hope our parents live forever. We need them. We rely on them. They are our rock, our go to when we have a bad day and sometimes our bestie. Before you make any plans or make any decisions, take a minute to digest the news and think through things you might need to prepare.
Once you’ve had time to process the news, think about a few questions you might want to ask your parent. Go somewhere quiet, disengage from social media and literally think of nothing but time with your aging parent.
Here a few suggestions…
- Conversations: Think through conversations you feel you need to have with your parent. Think about things you don’t know and need to know, not just financial things.
- Stuff: Do you know what your parent would want you to do with their things? Like everything? Have you discussed who gets what? What if there is an heirloom piece of furniture that they really want Cousin Eddie to have or a china set they want Betty Sue to have. Get your pad and pin out and make a list with your parent. Give them the opportunity to tell you what they want done with their own things.
- Questions: Do you have any questions you might want to ask your parent? Like, something you’ve always wanted to know but maybe haven’t had the nerve to ask. Take the opportunity to ask or inquire about things you’ve always wanted to know. We’ll talk more about good questions in a seperate post.
Above is a just a sample of the questions you might ask your parent as they take steps closer to their final days. The intent of the questions is not to pry, but to give you that final chance to ask something you’ve always wanted to know, but maybe didn’t feel comfortable. Ask yourself this, “are you going to regret not asking that looming question?” If the answer is yes, do it.
