Spending Time with People Who are Dying

Before cremations, one of the cremation services provided in Sun City, AZ, it’s important for us to spend time with people we love and care about who are dying. During your time on earth, it’s a sure thing that people you know well and love dearly will be diagnosed with a late-stage terminal illness with not much time left to live or they will have heart failure, strokes, or are simply are at the natural end of life.

It can feel uncomfortable for us to visit people who are dying, whether they’re in the hospital, in hospice care (at the hospital or at home), or living out their last days at home. We learned that death should avoided, or least kept at a distance, and that can impact our relationships with family and friends who are dying.

Hopefully, though, we can put our fears aside and make time for the people we love and care about before their time runs out and we no longer have the opportunity..

One thing we can do when we’re visiting with someone who is dying is to ask them how they are feeling. We should listen attentively to their answers. These people already know that they’re dying and we know that they’re dying, so this is a very important question for us to ask. We need to ask them if they are in pain. We should ask them if they need anything. We need to ask them if there’s anything we can do to help them. We can get those answers when we ask them how they feel and then follow up, as much as is comfortable for both people, without delving into too many specifics.

When we are visiting a friend or loved one who’s dying, we should listen much more than we talk. We need to be active listeners, fully engaged in what the dying person is telling us. They should have our undivided attention, so we should make sure our phones are on mute and put away. Many people with little time left to live need to put their lives in order, so they will talk about their lives, their families, and their successes and their regrets in an effort to make sense of and peace with their lives. Sometimes they will talk about their ancestors as a way of putting their own lives in order and perspective..

We should engage with the dying person by asking pertinent questions while they reminisce, while still letting them have the majority of the conversation. We shouldn’t interrupt their stories and we shouldn’t change subjects, even if some of the things they’re telling us are uncomfortable for us. People who are dying are writing the last chapter in their lives and they need our support in helping them do that.

We should never overstay a visit with a dying person, unless we’re part of their immediate family. As the dying process moves toward its conclusion, the dying person will get tired quickly and everything they do or say will require vast amounts of energy. We should instead try to make several short visits rather than one long visit. If the time of death is very close, then we should ensure that the dying person knows that we appreciate them, and that we love and care about them. We should also let them know how much we’ll miss them when they’re gone. We shouldn’t be afraid to show emotions of sadness nor should we hold back from saying goodbye. This can give closure to us and to the person who’s dying.

To learn more about visiting dying people and cremation services in Sun City, AZ, our compassionate and experienced team at Simply Cremation & Funeral Arrangements can assist you. You can come to our funeral home at 16952 W. Bell Rd., #303, Surprise, AZ, 85374, or you can contact us today at (623) 975-9393.