The Big Finish and Million Dollar Question…

How Do You Respond When Someone Says They’re Ready To Die?

4 min readMar 13

What do you say when someone tells you they are ready to die? Today I got some sad news, my uncle was summoned to the hospital because my grandmother is very ill. This is very sad of course, but not as sad as it could be for two reasons. The first is that I had three sets of grandparents till my mid-thirties, my maternal and paternal grandparents, and my stepfathers parents, I know many are not so lucky. Two of my husband’s grandparents died before he was born and another when he was fourteen. I got to sound lots of time with them all.

The second reason is that my grandmother has been saying for at least fifteen years that she is ready to die. Being candid, she is a tiny bit of a drama queen and always has been. That said, for the last five years or so I believe her. Grandma has been an invalid for most of the time that I’ve known her. Honestly, I believe she’d have done better with a daughter. My stepdad and his brother have molly-coddled her and I reckon she’d have done far better with a bit of a kick up the butt.

The Story So Far…

She often acted like she was at death’s door but at her 90th birthday nine years ago, she stayed at the venue til midnight and up talking at home till 3am! With encouragement I reckon she could have got far more out of her life. That’s in the past though and it’s too late to change. Until the last few years she still had a decent quality of life. She read her bible, watched tv and enjoyed a good chat.

Over the last ten years, however, she has lost my grandad, all her brothers and sisters and the majority of the friends she grew up with. She’s picked up a succession of infections, had several falls and is getting more confused. For the last few years she has stopped getting out of bed, reading her bible, or showing much interest in life. I believe she is ready to depart.