How to comfort a dying loved one

Family First | VoiceAmerica™

Click on the link above to learn a powerful way to comfort someone who is leaving this life. My new book Mothers Losing Moithers: Comfort and Reassurance in Your Time of Loss has just come out in eBook format. I am honored to have as my guest an expert on how to comfort the person who is dying. Read on please.

The largest generation ever is now in middle age and many of them are caring for elderly parents who are in their final transition. When your loved one asks, “What’s going to happen to me when I die?” How do you answer? And how do you deal with your own feelings as your loved one leaves this life? Often families are so caught up in making arrangements, giving care, and trying to comfort a dying loved one that they don’t know where to turn to get the support and answers they need.

My guest this week is Penelope Mont, who has extensive experience helping families weather this difficult time. Mont has worked for decades in the assisted living and hospice care fields, also caring for Alzheimer’s patients and training others to help families at this time. Mont has created useful tools to help. To celebrate the publication this week of my new book Mothers Losing Mothers: Comfort and Reassurance in Your Time of Loss, I am happy to welcome Penelope Mont, expert in end of life transition.  

To listen to Family First, click on this link and choose June 1. The show is live June 1 at 1 PM PT/2 PM MT/3 PM CT/4 PM PT. You can also hear it on demand and as a podcast any time afterwards. Just go to http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first. Share it with a friend who is losing a loved one.

Penelope Mont's work experience over the past forty years includes special education teaching; geriatric recreation therapy in a large nursing home; Director of an Alzheimer's day center program; and Director of Sales and Marketing in an assisted living community. Now in retirement, she pursues her passion for writing and speaking.  

Mont authored a booklet called “When Your Loved One Asks...What's Going To Happen  To Me When I Die?” from Premium Book Company; which  is used as hospice educational material, information for caregivers, families and clients, handouts at health fairs, and an addition to the office libraries of hospice satellites and supportive agencies across the USA. Her other publications include “Tips To Finding Alzheimer's Gift Ideas” from e-Books; and a novel called “Then What Happens?” from Infinity Publishing. Mont lives by the water in Beaufort, SC with her big dog, Bart. She likes kayaking, shrimping and especially visits from her two daughters and grandchildren. 

To hear Penelope Mont’s important insights, listen to Family First. The program airs live June 1 at 1 PM PT/2 PM MT/3 PM CT/4 PM PT. You can also hear it on demand and as a podcast any time afterwards. Just go to http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first.

Randy Rolfe's Take Home Tips: When you are speaking to loved ones about difficult sujbects it helps a lot if you have articulated your thoughts for yourself ahead of time. Don't shy away from difficult questions which you children or your parents may ask. If you are not ready to talk about it, ask them to give you some time to think. But then be sure to get back to them, whether it is minutes or days later.

The Fou Nutrition Secrets That Could Help Save your or Your Child's Life

This week Randy Rolfe - that's me - will be hosting on the net radio program "Family First" Susan Silberstein, Founder and Director of the Center for Advancement in Cancer Education. Her work is highly acclaimed by patients and doctors allike.

Go to http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/55191/the-four-nutrition-secrets-that-could-help-save-your-or-your-childs-life to listen in!

Every day we hear about one more fad diet, a celebrity getting fat or thin or sick, and diseases which are affecting more and more adults, like cancer, diabetes, obesity, immunity problems, and heart disease, affecting younger and younger Americans too. The US Department of Agriculture has just put out a new diagram of a Food Plate to try to educate our population better than the Food Pyramid has done. But will this really do the trick? How do parents know how to best feed themselves, let alone their children? My guest today is one of the most dedicated and experienced experts in the world today on how to get and stay healthy through wise food choices. Over several decades, Susan Silberstein, founder of the Center for Advancement in Cancer Education, has been educating cancer patients about food choices in recovery as well as thousands more on preventing these diseases of our modern lifestyle. Hearing her four secrets could actually save the life of someone you love.

Please join us at http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/55191/the-four-nutrition-secrets-that-could-help-save-your-or-your-childs-life.

Susan Silberstein is Executive Director of the Center for Advancement in Cancer Education, which she founded in 1977 after the death of her young husband to cancer. An international speaker on nutrition, cancer prevention, and complementary and alternative medicine, she lectures frequently for corporate, nursing, medical, educational, and other organizations. Silberstein is the author of the recipe books Hungry for Health and Hungrier for Health, creator of the video Breast Cancer: The Diet Connection, editor of Immune Perspectives magazine, and designer of the Beat Cancer Kit Series. Since 1977, she has coordinated scores of health conferences, has appeared on hundreds of radio and television talk shows, and has coached thousands of patients. A Phi Beta Kappa and Fulbright Scholar, she has won numerous awards for her continuing work in cancer education.

Go to http://www.voiceamerica.com/guest/10730/susan-silberstein to learn about Susan's expertise.

To listen in live Friday at 4 PM Eastern or 1 PM Pacific, go to http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/55191/the-four-nutrition-secrets-that-could-help-save-your-or-your-childs-life . Or come back anytime to listen on your PC or download the show as a podcast or MP3.

Randy Rolfe's Take Home Tip: Avoid arguments about nutrition at meal time! Do your nutrition education when the children are not eating and not hungry. Then the pressure is less on both of you and their minds are more open. They will also remember more when meal time comes again. They may even ask a question about how what you said earlier applies to the meal at hand. And of course, try to be consistent with your food principles, especially in the home. And model good eating choices yourself. Avoid putting a sugary or salty snack out of wrapper or box when you have been telling them about the virtues of home made snacks. And help them read labels! They will be fascinated by the unpronouncible "food-like substances," the FLSs, in packaged foods.

When Grandma Is Gone

Parenting author and family expert Randy Rolfe, that's me, is working on a new book about what happens when a mother loses her mother. Having lost my mother a year or so ago, I discovered that many women around me were going through the same time of life and I wanted to honor our mothers and ourselves by writing about it. Could anything be more profound that the creative force of motherhood passed on from one generation to the next? I am having a wonderful time, though deeply moving and sometimes too emotionally heavy to bear – have to take some time out - talking to these wonderful women. One thing which stands out is the deep love and respect which permeates their stories, along with all the mixed feelings and impressions one might imagine when you have shared half a life-time with a beloved parent. For me, it was my sociologist mother who got me interested in observing and teaching about family in the first place, when she invited me to do a fifth grade project for my American history class not on some battle or some heroine but on the history of the American family! What a project for a ten year old! My life’s goal has always been to facilitate world peace, having grown up during the Cold War, but I soon discovered that world peace begins in the home. Anyhow, here is just one tidbit from the book right now – spend as much time as you can comfortably spend with your parents and your children together. The memories made now will last and last.

Check out Randy’s other books at www.randyrolfe.com.