Coping with the reality of approaching death

It is common to focus on people’s ability to cope and accept death rather than how they choose to continue living (Benthall & Holmes, 2011). 
With Paul I noticed how he was accepting of his approaching death, but also that he was very definite in how he intended to spend his remaining time. He was told by his doctor that he would have a slow and painful death and so one of his main occupations was protecting our mother as much as possible:

15 July 2014
“Mom won’t get any bad news from me. I’m not worried at all. I had a couple of wobbly hours after seeing the doc. The truth can be painful. Back to normal now. I know what I’ve got ahead of me and I’ll definitely have more good days than bad and plenty of days drinking tea with mom in the garden”.

Rachel Atkinson of LOROS Hospice stresses the importance of "normalising as much as possible the dying process, remembering we only have one chance to get it right" (personal communication, 18 July 2015).