By NPR — 2011
When it comes to providing emotional support, skip the platitudes. What matters is being honest and human.
Read on www.npr.org
CLEAR ALL
Expert advice on finding the right words, listening well, and getting specific about offers of help.
My mom’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and decline were a painful and lonely journey, one that coincided with an otherwise unbearably hectic time. My two children were still in diapers.
Last week was the one-year anniversary of the beginning of my husband’s health crisis. As I gaze at the permanent handicap placard and at him sleeping, once again, on the couch, I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned this past year.
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When someone you love falls ill, gets in an accident or receives a scary health diagnosis, it’s never easy. In fact, it may be the hardest thing you’ll ever have to face. Unfortunately, it’s also inevitable that we’ll all deal with this kind of situation in life.
Linda Fox of Brooklyn donated a lobe of her liver to save her husband, whose own liver had failed. The transplant took, and Ms. Fox said although recovery from the surgery was no picnic, she would willingly do it again.
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With endurance, I have learned that we are provided endless opportunities to maintain a sense of kindness, understanding, reality, and within-ness for ourselves.