Remembering Penn's Mom: Grief, Laughter & Our "Death Wishes"
About this episode
The episode discusses the complexities of grief following the death of Penn's mom, highlighting the balance of sadness and relief, and the importance of communicating death wishes.
My mom passed away last week after a very long battle with Alzheimer’s and dementia. If you’ve ever loved someone through this disease, you probably understand how complicated that grief can be. There is sadness and loss, but there can also be relief (and guilt for feeling that relief.) I’ve been around Alzheimer’s for almost 40 years, and I’m still learning that all of those feelings can exist at the same time. My Mom was a doer, a giver, and someone who spent her life serving her family and her community. And in one final act of service, she donated her brain to Alzheimer’s research . Knowing that her gift could help families like ours someday is an incredible source of hope. We talked about all of this in the show and we also found ourselves laughing through grief. We discovered that writing an obituary can really make you question your own life accomplishments, discussed what food should be served in our memory, and learned that the preferred vehicle for riding into the great beyond is a Chrysler Pacifica. One of the greatest gifts my mom left us was her detailed “death wishes.” She made her choices known so we didn’t have to make them for her. It made me realize that talking…
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