3. A death and dying process

I shared my experience with my dad’s death and dying process in this interview. A good friend who is an experienced medical social worker played guest host as she knew a bit about the journey I was on with my dad. Big thanks to her for listening and helping me get the story recorded. As two social workers, we did digress into some intellectualizing about the importance of having conversations with your loved ones and cultural impact on the experience of death and dying.

I talked about “professional criers” at one point in the episode. I made up that term on the spot because I’ve never actually seen this practice in the United States so not sure if there was an official term in English. Upon a quick search in the trusty Google, it appears that “professional mourners” is actually a relatively common practice in many parts of the world, and can be referred to as moirologists. The practice is meant to honor the deceased, as large crowds at the funeral is interpreted as a reflection of the importance of your social status. Just sharing as I found this fascinating!

I also talked about reading the book “Being Mortal” in this episode, which helped me process my own experience after my dad passed away. You can find more info about Atul Gawande and his book on his website.

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Thank you for listening!