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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