Love Your Life to Death
To those who want to live well…and die well,
What if we planned our lives well instead of just going through the motions? What if we planned our end of life—long before a diagnosis, long before we were dying? What if we learned about grief before the grief so that we could be better prepared for it? Imagine…
My name is Yvonne Heath. I am a wife, mother to three amazing children and a nurse since 1988. I have worked in ten different hospitals in Ontario, New York, Louisiana and Texas. I have nursed in the emergency room, long term care, medical and surgical units, intensive care in chemotherapy and hospice. I have witnessed a great deal of suffering, pain and death phobia, and felt it in my own life.
We have come a long way with palliative care and hospice, but have a long way to go. Many still cling to quantity of life at the expense of quality of life. Over the years, I have had many patients tell me they are ready to die but their families are not ready to let them go.
Death phobia causes excessive suffering for the dying individual and for those who are left behind to pick up the broken pieces. Parents often do not want to expose their children to death, creating death phobic adults in the future. How then, can we build resilience? How can we learn that our broken hearts will heal?
When we learn to talk about and plan our life and death, something amazing happens. We live more fully and suffer less at the end of our lives. And so do our loved ones.
I am devoted to helping people learn to live well and die well, and to create compassionate communities. It takes a village to care for the ill, the caregiver, the dying and the bereaved. We need to take good care of each other, but we must start with taking care of ourselves.
This is my own journey of discovery and you are welcome to take it with me. Let's write, talk, laugh, cry and grow together. And may you always find a way, to love your life.
