I once knew a couple whose young son was dying. The parents refused to talk with him about it. Perhaps, this would not have been a bad strategy had they been able to persuade him that he would live, but they were not.
The young boy knew -- as people often do, somehow -- that his end was near. He wanted to talk, but any time he broached the topic, the mother and father would insist that he would get better; that he wouldn't die.
As a consequence, he not only had to face the prospect of death at a very young age but he had to do it alone. We often let each other face death alone for similar reasons.
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