Anticipatory Bereavement

Anticipatory Bereavement

When words are most empty,
tears are most apt.

Max Lucado

Anticipatory bereavement is when we start grieving the loss of someone who is still alive, but dying. Just like grief after a death, anticipatory grief involves a host of physical, emotional, and mental reactions that can create sadness, denial, anger, and indecision. It is a grief experience unlike any other.

Knowing your pet is dying is so hard. It is so hard watching someone you love so much, who has always been there for you, grow old, frail, and sick.

Being our pet’s advocate can be the hardest thing we ever have to do, but we love our pets too much to allow them to live in pain or to suffer. Sometimes, the only way that we can end the suffering of our pets is to begin our own suffering.

This is real love.

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