"As difficult and challenging as this conversation is - and it clearly is - it pales in comparison with the pain and the
suffering that not having it puts people through."
- Tom
When end-of-life decisions are made and communicated long before there's a need to put them into effect, family members can be confident that they know each other's wishes. They can have time to grow comfortable with decisions that may have been difficult at first to understand and accept. As the end nears, they can spare themselves the unnecessary grief that not knowing what to do inevitably brings. And their loved one's passing can be a time of tenderness and clarity, rather than confusion or strife.
Without advance directives, there's contention and debates Mamie, college social work professor
