More ways to be a good hospice visitor:

Here are a few ways to support your loved one through their terminal illness.

1. Ask your loved one what they want.
2. Create a wish list.
3. Respect your loved one’s sense of dignity.
4. Share memories.
5. Get their affairs in order.
6. Ask for or offer additional help.
7. Simply be there.

Here are some simple ways you can bring comfort to a dying loved one:

1. Create a quiet environment.
2. Sit in silence.
3. Speak soothing words.
4. Dim the lighting.
5. Keep the patient’s mouth moist.
6. Play soft music, if helpful.
7. Use gentle touch.

1. Call ahead and ask when you should come.
2. Sit, don’t stand.
3. Greet as you always have: an air kiss, a big hug, a handshake.
4. If the patient is very sick, they may face away from you, close their eyes or be unresponsive.
5. Talk about shared memories.

the skin of their knees, feet, and hands may become purplish, pale, grey, and blotchy. These changes usually herald death within hours to days. When death does occur, the skin turns to a waxen pallor as the blood settles.

When someone may be entering the last days of life, a healthcare professional should tell the patient that they’re dying (unless they don’t want to know).

Elizabeth : [wiping her tears] How do you say goodbye to someone you can’t imagine living without? I didn’t say goodbye. Elizabeth : I didn’t say anything. I just walked away.

Examples

• “Thank you for all the days you’ve made brighter just by being you.
• “Thinking of the good life you’ve lived, the great times we’ve shared, and feeling so grateful for you.”
• “You’ve been such an important part of my life, and for that, I’ll always be grateful.”

Hearing is widely thought to be the last sense to go in the dying process. Now UBC researchers have evidence that some people may still be able to hear while in an unresponsive state at the end of their life.