Loneliness at End of Life

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a topic that you might be wildly unfamiliar with - death doulas. Today's discussion was prompted by an article in The New York Times titled “How Death Doulas Support the Living.” It's about how actress Nicole Kidman is charting a new career path as a death doula after feeling a void in support when her mother passed away. A death doula is a trained, non-medical professional who provides holistic emotional, spiritual and practical support to people who are dying and their loved ones.

Episode Links

Dr. White explained how death is not a topic that people (obviously) like to talk about. But it is important to understand the stages of death. He mentioned a resource that was written decades ago, but that still proves to be incredibly helpful for processing death and dying. The book is titled On Death and Dying, written by Elisabeth Kubler Ross and published in 1969. You can find it on Amazon HERE.

Increasingly in our culture, the need for someone like a death doula to come alongside you has to do with loneliness. There was a recent article in The Washington Post on this titled “An age-old fear grows more common: ‘I'm going to die alone.'” The subheading summarizes the problem well: “As families fracture, people are living longer and are more likely to find themselves without close relatives or friends at the end of their lives.” These broken families, broken relationships, are really the heart of the problem. Dr. White recently did a series at Mecklenburg Community Church on the importance of “Relational Repair.” It struck a chord with so many people. If you wish to check it out, you can find it on Church & Culture HERE.

Dr. White pointed out something very vital to our lives - community that is found through the Church. If you don't already have a church home, I would encourage you to check out Mecklenburg Community Church. On our website - mecklenburg.org - you can find out more about who we are and what we believe. And you can even experience a service through our Online Campus if you can't join us in person. But we hope that you will find community through a local church.

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