21/10/2026
They have had years with the thought, and somewhere in those years they made a kind of peace with it, while you have been carefully not thinking about it at all.
So you may have been protecting them from a conversation they are readier for than you are, the one about what they want and what matters most to them.
The full piece covers where this fear comes from, how to start that conversation, and what is worth gathering while they are still here: https://www.lonite.com/education/anticipatory-grief-fear-of-losing-parents
