I knew that cancer didn't discriminate. I knew it didn't care if the person was old or young or if the person already had enough problems. I knew all of this, but I didn't know cancer had my sister's address.

Recently, my baby sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. My entire life, I've always tried to identify the hardest thing about living. Because my sister has been diagnosed with cancer, I now know what the hardest thing about living is. The hardest thing about living is watching someone you love

Before we discuss the subject of death, we should discuss the subject of grief. And that is that there are basically 5 stages of grief that one undergoes when one encounters a loss, whether it's a broken relationship, bankruptcy, a loved one's death, ones own impending death, or any other loss. They are in order of their occurrence 1) denial, 2) anger, 3) bargaining, 4)depression, and 5) acceptance. You could skip a stage, or perhaps go back and forth, but in general these are the stages people go through when one experiences a loss.

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy I woke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold! Service was joy."

-Rabindranath Tagore

A thousand years before the Common Era, there were healing sanctuaries in Greece, Egypt and Rome, sometimes attached to temples, for attending to the dying. The modern hospice movement developed in the 1950s, in England, to assist the terminally ill live the last part of their lives more

At a pet bereavement meeting an owner asked the group how one could tell that it was time to have an elderly loved pet euthanized. I replied that usually the pet will indicate when it is time by refusing to eat anything at all. When they refuse their favorite foods and special delicacies, when there is nothing I can find that they will eat, then I make an appointment for euthanasia. I don't think it is kind to allow an animal to starve itself to death. The majority of my very old or terminally ill dogs have refused food to indicate their acceptance of the end of their life.

Hope goes beyond a cure for the terminally ill. Finding meaning in life brings a sense of hope. Confirming relationships gives hope and peace. Hope for self becomes hope for family and then hope for the world and a peaceful death.

Redefining Hope and being told that you are terminally ill, is shocking, and disorienting news. The shock is so great that you can't think of anything else, and it is practically impossible to carry on as usual. Gradually, you begin to make sense of the diagnosis, but there is a great struggle

It was 1990 and I was back in NYC from LA dealing with my terminally ill mother in Cedar Sinai Hospital. Three years earlier, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. As you might have experienced yourself, back in those days the dreaded chemo was really the only treatment available. She put up the good fight, but by this juncture it had spread to the liver and lymph nodes. Mom was losing the battle and she was in and out of a coma.

To be happy, you need a deep inner conviction that you can shape your own happiness and you don't need to feel helpless and at the mercy of fate. The zest for life is an important element when it comes to staying healthy.

You need to feel that you can take an active role in driving through the potholes in life. You need to be the master of your own pleasure, enjoyment and happiness, but also have the ability to come to terms with crisis and failures. I know people who have an optimistic outlook in life

Lindsay's desire to have children is the only reason she's waiting to have her ovaries removed, probably at age 35.

She never wanted to make a big deal out of her surgery; she emphasizes that her story is only one among many. Her point, once again, is to get young women to become more aware of their own cancer risk.

"It doesn't have to be that life-ending

Cancer activist's approach: Real, a bit irreverent

Lindsay Avner is no shrinking violet. She's a bright pink whirlwind, with a closet full of dresses cut from that very color and a cancer-fighting organization she named for it.

Bold yet calculating, she is the nice girl who knows how to get what she wants, and how to get away with saying things others couldn't, or wouldn't.

"Mind your melons," Avner, who's 28

Anticipatory grief is the name given to the mix of emotions experienced when we are living in expectation of loss and grieving because of it. Anticipatory Grief is particularly relevant to those who have received a terminal diagnosis and for those who love and care for them.