Showing love to the people you leave behind

Expressing your love and leaving a positive impact on your loved ones is a lifelong journey, not just something to consider in the face of mortality.

Transcript

00:00

If you think of it as a way to show your love for the people who are going to be here after you're gone, it might make it--

00:09

maybe it might make it a little bit easier to get the work done that needs to be done.

00:17

In my experience with my mom, I feel very fortunate in that I was able to be with her when

00:24

she died because that's what she wanted. And of course-- I mean, I don't know whether anyone ever

00:30

feels like they've done the very best possible, best thing possible when someone dies,

00:37

but I've come to the conclusion three, four years later that I did the best I could. And it was largely because she opened up the space

00:44

to talk about what she wanted. I think it's really, really important. We can be kind to ourselves in trying

00:51

to understand why it's so difficult to talk about, but also remembering that talking about it so that we can

00:59

resolve some of the issues before it becomes impossible to resolve them can make things so much

01:05

easier for the people we love. My son, who happens to be a lawyer, was so adamant with me

01:12

about updating my will because my will and his dad's will were ancient.

01:19

And I found it really annoying at first, and then when my mother-- when I realized my mother was going to die eventually--

01:27

I mean, she was 93, so she was-- and she was healthy up until pretty much the very end.

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And when I realized that she had taken care of everything, which made it so much easier for us, I realized

01:43

why it was important for my son, for me to do this for my son, because it is one of the most loving things you can do for the people you're leaving behind.