Dying

The evidence firmly exists that music plays an important role in almost everyone’s life, and for older adults, it can help support healthy brain aging and build cognitive reserve. We also have evidence of the therapeutic value of music in helping patients to recover from illness or to endure difficult…

It’s one of the sad rights of passage as you get older to experience loss. Whether it’s your parents, a spouse, another loved one, or a friend, few of us reach our later years without experiencing loss several times over. And just because you are exposed to loss doesn’t mean…

None of us leaves this world alive, and as Dame Cicely Saunders once said, “How people die remains in the memory of those who live on.” We are therefore fortunate to live in an era when the option of having a “death doula” has become more commonplace in helping individuals…

One year ago, President Jimmy Carter made the important decision to transfer to hospice care, rather than continue the cycle of intermittent acute-care hospitalizations that kept him away from home and apart from his dear wife Rosalynn. Not only was this a highly personal decision for him and his family,…

For such a universal experience, it’s somewhat shocking that so many of us know so little about what actually happens as death approaches. Most of us have been raised in an era and environment where death happens in a facility or setting apart from everyday life, and frequently those in…