What Are Meaning-Making Activities to Do With a Loved One to Prepare for End of Life?

Legacy projects, bucket lists, rituals, and spiritual or religious practices are all meaning-making activities that offer opportunities for reflection, conversation, and a pathway toward acceptance. These activities can provide a sense of comfort and emphasize the value and importance of the connection shared with your loved one. Although the following suggestions are common choices for meaning-making activities, personalizing and customizing your activities to your relationship with your loved one is also greatly encouraged. 

One of the most common meaning-making activities is working on a legacy project with your loved one. This can involve creating a photo album or scrapbook that details important milestones and cherished memories throughout their life or making video and audio recordings of stories about their personal experiences. Asking them to write a letter to you or other loved ones can be another activity that creates a tangible memory or reminder of a legacy that you can revisit at a later time. These types of activities help your loved one to reflect on their own legacy while also providing opportunities for other loved ones to better understand their life experiences. 

If your loved one has a bucket list of experiences that they would like to have before the end of life, participating in these experiences together can be another great way to maintain their legacy. Your loved one might have unique interests or hobbies that you only associate with them, and this is an opportunity to share those moments with them. At the same time you will be supporting their ability to achieve a greater sense of accomplishment and quality of life. If your loved one struggles with mobility, try thinking of creative ways that you can help them achieve the goals and experiences on their bucket list. 

Sharing in spiritual or religious practices together can also contribute to the meaning-making process if your loved one is a person of faith. This might involve meditation, prayer, discussing beliefs and values, reading sacred texts, or singing hymns or chants. Engaging in these activities with your loved one can help them find peace and meaning within their spiritual or religious traditions while also serving as a way to deepen their connection with you through the shared experience. 

Finally, gathering together with your loved one and other family members or friends to focus on planning for the rituals or ceremonies that will take place after death can also be a meaning-making activity. Although it can be difficult to discuss these topics with your loved one, including them in the planning discussions and arrangements can provide them with the opportunity to share their preferences about how they want to be remembered and honored after their death. 

Sources:

“Spirituality in Patients at the End of Life – is It Necessary? A Qualitative Approach to the Protagonists.” National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8751211/ 

“62 Inspiring and Exciting Bucket List Ideas for Cancer Patients”. OmniCare Hospice. https://omnicarehospice.com/bucket-list-ideas-for-cancer-patients/ 

“How to Bring More Meaning to Dying”. Greater Good Magazine. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_bring_more_meaning_to_dying 
“Legacy Activities”. Hospice Waterloo Region. https://www.hospicewaterloo.ca/legacy-activities/