Caring for the Dying, Part 4 (Preparing for the Inevitable #33)

Gospel Light Society Podcasts

This podcast will help you get ready to face the inevitable unpleasant things that will happen in your life -- things like trouble, suffering, sickness, and death -- the death of people you love and your own death. Trouble, suffering, and death are common threads that run throughout all of humanity. They are inescapable. You will never meet a person who has not, is not, or will not experience these terrible things in life. Yet, we attempt to hide from these inevitabilities, to pretend they don't exist or that they won't happen to us. Our world is filled with news of people dying, children suffering, entire government systems and organizations enduring trouble and turmoil, but we tend to see these as things that only happen to "other people" and never to us. Trouble, suffering, and death come equally to all people, of all races, from every socio-economic status, of every religion, in every country of the world. It makes us all equal. This podcast will show you how to accept these realities of life, and not just cope, but face trouble, suffering, and death in your own life and in the world with confidence, courage, class, and most of all, with faith, hope, and charity. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:54: “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” The featured quote for this episode is from C.S. Lewis. He said, "The death of a beloved is an amputation." Our topic for today is titled "Caring for the Dying, Part 4" from the book, "The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come" by Rob Moll. Today, we begin looking at some lessons from the story of Katherine Jefferson and her brother, Bob, who came down with cancer and later died. --- Journeying to What? Bob’s dying process lasted more than two years after he was diagnosed with cancer. While gradual dying can strain family resources as members care for an ill person or struggle to pay medical bills, it also provides opportunities for families to care for each other. This can be particularly meaningful when it is the last time we will be able to care for someone we love. Caregiving for a dying person is full-time work. It can be exhausting, even for someone like Cindy, who was healthy, able, retired and had plenty of help from friends and family. On top of the physical effort, a terminal illness requires navigating the complex health-care system of insurance, medicine and doctors. Patients take trips to the hospital, undergo surgery perhaps, and need time to recover. All this goes on in addition to the mundane requirements of life — meals, children’s soccer games, lawn mowing. ...