Your family’s ability to have or not have loving, caring and authentic conversations reveals a lot about the overall health of your home life.
When I was a boy and my mom was dying of cancer, everybody around me was afraid to bring up the subject. At the time, I was 9 years old. The subject was so taboo. In fact, nobody even told me my mother was in her last days. I knew she was sick, but assumed she would recover.
As she deteriorated, they wouldn’t even let me see her.
Given the way I was shut out of my mother’s illness, her death came as a complete shock to me. My mom was there one minute and gone the next. I never even had a moment to tell her how much I loved her. That remains one of the greatest regrets of my life.
As a result of this profound experience, my wife and I have worked hard to cultivate an atmosphere of healthy dialogue in the Daly home. During the COVID lockdown, one of our sons came to me and said something that I’ve never forgotten.
Originally published in the Washington Times.
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