The final days are typically marked with increased spirituality and a craving to be closer to a higher power. Neal Shah, CEO of CareYaya, a health tech company that specializes in elder care, said people also show a ‘desire for connection’ with loved ones and faith.
Neal Shah, CEO of CareYaya, a health tech company that specializes in elder care, said people also show a ‘desire for connection’ with loved ones and faith.
He added: ‘Some voice regrets, while others find peace or closure. These responses are deeply personal and shaped by individual experiences.’
Many reconnect with their religious traditions that they may have jettisoned in adulthood. A lapsed Catholic, for instance, will likely ask their chaplain to pray with them.
The chaplain, who serves as a cross between a minister and a therapist, discusses the patient’s chosen system of belief ahead of time and taps into that to help a patient feel most at ease about their impending death.
Zackary Price, a Georgia-based chaplain, likened his job to that of the ferryman of the Greek underworld, Charon, who carried the deceased across the River Styx. But in his mind, life does not end with death.
He said: ‘It’s actually very, very rewarding because, for me, death is not the opposite of life.
'The opposite of death is birth. It's just like the first law of thermonuclear dynamics in physics – energy can neither be created or destroyed. It simply changes form.’