When visiting a doctor, especially for a potentially serious condition, it pays to know what questions to ask and have a companion to listen and write things down lest you forget what’s said.

I recently tuned into Mettle Health’s online discussion “Advance Care Planning: Conversations and Documents”. Mettle Health, led by physician and author B.J. Miller, provides online palliative and holistic care. I highly recommend you check them out. B.J. was in discussion with UCSF geriatrician and palliative medicine physician Rebecca Sudore who has created a valuable Advanced Care Planning (ACP) resource at PREPARE For Your Care.

If your senior loved one has recently lost their spouse, grief may be affecting their decisions, especially in the complex financial realm. Therefore, you may have to step up and provide some support. You can do this in several ways, but avoid becoming overbearing even as you guide your loved one through sorting out their finances.

We live, we laugh, we fall in love, we laugh even more, and then we spend our days watching little ones running around. It seems like we’re doing this forever, and then one day the house becomes quiet. Your kids are finished with being kids, and it’s time to think about what to do next. Maybe it’s time to downsize? Read on for some tips and resources from contributor Karyn Winrich.

Experiencing a death in the family can strike a major blow to everyone involved and, in some cases, can fracture relationships due to guilt, blame, and conflict. When you’re trying to manage your emotions and cope with the loss of your loved one, the last thing you need is turmoil within your family, so it’s important to learn the best ways to handle those feelings and how to communicate them.

Prioritizing your health through exercise and nutrition will help you maintain a great quality of life and enjoy better health during your golden years. However, if you’ve recently retired, it can be hard to get motivated to stay active and eat well, but these are two of the most important things that will help you live healthfully for years to come. GoodEnding offers these suggestions and inspiration for adopting these wellness habits to help you live a healthy life in your senior years.

Dr. Jeff Spiess’s Dying with Ease. offers “A Compassionate Guide for Making Wiser End-of-Life Decisions”. Early chapters build on Dr. Spiess’s experience as a former oncologist and hospice medical director to provide detailed practical information on how we die and what we can do to improve our chances of a good death. Later chapters are more personal and contemplative. The chapters, “What Does It Feel Like To Die?” and “Envisioning Your Own Death” are must reads. I read Dying with Ease cover-to-cover. However, one can easily dip into the book seeking specific information or only reading chapters of particular interest. Whatever one’s approach, you should come away better equipped for a GoodEnding.

I have an entire bookshelf dedicated to books about dying and how to die well. Most of the books address themselves to the physical aspects of dying - practical advice to navigating the last stages of life. The Lost Art of Dying has some of this, but its primary focus is how to prepare oneself mentally for death. Columbia University physician and professor L. S. Dugdale has written a new ars moriendi - art of dying - reinterpreting a medieval text she discovered that guides one in preparing for a good death. The Lost Art of Dying encourages the contemplation of human finitude, no matter what one’s age, and provides valuable guidance for anyone seeking an eventual GoodEnding.