Best Health – August-September 2019

4 AUGUST | SEPTEMBER 2019 best health besthealthmag.ca

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EDITOR’S LETTER

THE SUMMER BEFORE MY MOM DIED, I SEIZED

every opportunity I could to ask her questions. A

hodgepodge of queries spilled from my twenty-

something brain as it tried to prepare for the

impossible: a future without her.

I asked where she kept her Christmas stuffing

recipe and what her favourite memories were.

I wanted to know what kind of career she would

have chosen if she had grown up in an era when it

was acceptable to desire such a thing.

We talked endlessly about my teen brother,

Max, who was just heading off to university. I had

so many questions about how to help launch him

into the world without her. Mom’s advice? Just

love him unconditionally.

Even though I believed I was asking the right

questions, time showed me up — as it always does.

I probably could have found the Christmas

stuf f ing recipe on my own, but no one except Mom

could have answered this question: How do you

want to die? At home or in a hospital? With or

without heroic measures?

We never asked, and it led to challenging family

conversations during Mom’s last days, when she

cou ld no longer communicate. In t he end, we made

our best guesses, but we didn’t always get it right.

You could see it in her eyes, and it was heartbreak-

ing and haunting.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Armed with a lit-

tle knowledge, you can fill in the blanks now by

asking the right questions. Kate Daley tackles this

very subject in our regular column, The 10. With

compassion and common sense, she explores the

key questions every family should ask each other.

Even if you can’t work up to all 10, pick two or

three just to get started. Yes, they are tough con-

versations, but they are so much easier to have

now, when the idea of “last wishes” is more

abstract than real. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

In fact, you won’t regret anything in this, our

wellness issue. From what to eat to how to guard

against fake news to how to get fit, our aim is the

same: to encourage and inspire you to live life to

its most satiating end.

And if something works really well for you on

your journey to better health, please share it with

us. We love hearing about your triumphs. bh

Beth Thompson

Editor-in-Chief

Follow me on @bestbeth

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