Seeing Death Clearly
Seeing Death Clearly
Jill McClennen
Appreciate the time you have with the people you love with Stephen Wilson
19 minutes Posted Jan 2, 2023 at 2:00 pm.
Stephen shares his background
The experience of volunteering at a hospital as a teenager
Trigger warning: Beliefs about death and dying being challenged after a cousin died of a heroin overdose in their 20’s
Preparing ourselves for the reality of death
Awareness of death makes us appreciate life more
Check in with the parents of our children’s friends about guns in the house and how they are stored
Importance of communication
Why knowing your loved ones end of life wishes is important if the unexpected happens
Living in appreciation of the time we have together while also knowing that one of us could die any day.
Verbalizing and showing our love is important
What season of the year reminds Stephen of death?
0:00
19:39
Download MP3
Show notes

Send us a text

Seeing Death Clearly is my new podcast and on the first episode, I have my husband Stephen Wilson.

I decided to have Stephen on as my first guest because we have been together for about 23 years and we have talked about death and dying early on in our relationship but there is still more to talk about and learn about each other’s wishes.

Stephen grew up in FL and I was raised in NJ, which means that our backgrounds in life are pretty different.  

He has basically always believed that life is part of death and that death is part of life.

Stephen’s parents were young when they had him and his grandmother was young when she had his mother, so he didn’t experience a lot of death of loved ones growing up.  

Even though they didn’t experience a lot of death in their family when he was a child, both his parents worked in a hospital and so death was part of their normal conversations.  

When he was a teenager he volunteered at the hospital to be part of a disaster preparedness exercise, the experience was interesting but it didn’t scare him. 

Stephen had a young cousin die from a heroin overdose and we talk about how that experience made it clear that the death of a young person could happen to anyone including our children.  

My worst nightmare is one of the children dying before us, and Stephen has a very grounded way of viewing this. He feels that the reality is, they could die before us, but we take steps to prevent this from happening.  

Communicating with the parents of children that are around our children, and asking about guns in the home and how they are stored, are part of the measures we take to keep our kids safe.  This could be a difficult conversation for some people to have.

Part of life is having conversations about hard topics such as asking other parents about guns and talking about our wishes for the end of life.

Having hard conversations will not prevent the unexpected from happening, it will make sure that when something does happen, we are as prepared as we can be.  

You can’t live in fear of the knowledge that one day someone will die. Thinking about death and dying has made me appreciate the time I have with Stephen and the kids in a way I wasn’t expecting.   

Please subscribe to my podcast to hear more stories about people’s experiences around death, dying, grief, and how thinking about our death can help us live a better life.

You can also connect with me on social media and join my Facebook group End of Life Clar

Support the show

Support the show financially by doing a paid monthly subscription, any amount large or small help to keep the podcast advertisement free. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2092749/support

Subscribe to Seeing Death Clearly and leave a 5-star review if you are enjoying the podcast.

I appreciate the support and it helps get the word out to more people that could benefit from hearing the podcast.

Don’t forget to check out my free workbook Living a Better Life.


You can connect with me on my website, as well as all major social media platforms.

Website www.endoflifeclarity.com
Instagram
Facebook
Facebook group End of Life Clarity Circle
LinkedIn
TikTok