Our son gave my wife the book Being Mortal for Mother’s Day. The author, Dr. Atul Gawande, is a surgeon in Boston, on the faculty at Harvard, and known for his best selling book The Checklist Manifesto. Whether you are caring for aging relatives or managing your own affairs as you reach your later years, I think it provides valuable insight on aging and death. It will force you to think about things most of us would rather not.
My personal takeaways were:
- Stay in your home as long as possible.
- Talk to multiple doctors to get more than one perspective on end-of-life health issues.
- Talk to your children about what’s important to you and give them direction on what they can do.
I encourage you to pick up a copy and share your insights with your children.
