Do you want to leave a legacy of love, or a legacy of pain?
That’s the question Canadian author and speaker Yvonne Heath is asking as she travels across the country.
After 27 years of nursing, witnessing people be, what she calls, death-phobic, Heath quit her job to write her first book, Love Your Life to Death.
“A lot of people think if you talk about it or think about it’s like you’re jinxing yourself.”
Heath travelling across Canada to speak to everyday people and health professionals about how to talk about or help others talk about death.
“I’ve met beautiful, wonderful people who have suffered the deepest grief you could possibly imagine, and they got through it to the other side and found joy in their lives again. That is possible for everyone,” Heath said.
Her advice includes discussing death wishes while you’re still healthy to avoid letting emotion and grief get in the way.
Creating plans for end of life with loved ones will open conversation about what’s important for them as well.
Heath said understanding and accepting grief, death and dying will change your life.
“It helps me to live my life fully knowing that I have done all of this and my family won’t ever have to worry about it,” she said.