While we can never know how much time we’re going to have with the people we love, if you have someone in your life that is older and living in a senior living facility or that has been recently diagnosed with some kind of illness that will drastically shorten their lifespan, it’s only natural to want to spend as much time with this person as you can. However, with this added pressure and complication, you might be wondering how you can best spend this time together.
To help you in figuring this out, here are three things to do when spending time with a terminally ill loved one.
Continue Making Them Feel Included
In most cases, just because someone only has a short time left to live doesn’t mean that they want to just be left alone to finish out their life. What many people really want is to be surrounded by those they love and experience as much as they can with them while it’s still possible.
Knowing this, you should try to do everything in your power to continue to make your loved one feel included. This might mean picking them up for events, bringing things to them, having get-togethers where they live, and other things so that they can still feel involved in the lives of those they love even with the limitations they’re likely having to live with now.
Find Ways To Serve Them
When someone is getting older in years or is sick and will soon die, there’s probably a lot of things that they need to have taken care of that they simply can’t do on their own anymore. This is a great way for you to step in and give yourself something to do while you’re trying to spend more time with your loved one.
As you do things to serve your loved one, you can keep yourself busy when around your loved one while also helping them accomplish things that they’re needing assistance with.
Reminisce About The Past And Document For The Future
You likely already have a lot of memories with this loved one that bring a smile to your face when you think about them. So to help your loved one find a little joy and peace during these difficult times, spend some hours reminiscing about things that you did in the past together and times that really brought you together.
Along with this, you can also document what’s going on now for yourself and your other friends or family members to look back on when your loved one is no longer here. This way, you can have photos, videos, and more to remember your loved one by.
If you’re wanting to spend more time with a loved one who doesn’t have much longer to live, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you make the most of your remaining time together.