Column: Putting you in the picture

Dying Matters week is taking place across the UK from May 14 to 20.

No one relishes the prospect of talking about dying but if someone close to you is old or ill, it’s a subject you may want to raise soon.

There may be practical matters, care arrangements, wills, as well as emotional matters you want to address in preparation.

And you’d be absolutely right, because death happens to all of us, and it’s never too early to make provision.

It’s such a hard subject to raise because the last thing we want to do is hurt the feelings of someone close to us, or make them feel unwanted.

However, there are ways of starting a conversation sensitively which still make the other person feel cared for.

Remember that actually we are all dying so conversations can be held on an equal footing with all participants talking about plans, fears and hopes for their own death.

As part of Dying Matters week, Strathcarron Hospice hosted an exhibition in Forth Valley Royal Hospital until Friday, May 18.

Locals had the chance to see photographs taken by an award-winning photographer along with quotes taken from people who are all involved, in many different ways, with death and dying, such as a taxi driver who takes patients to hospital to a funeral director who takes very special care of those she deals with.