ABSTRACT
It is always a shattering emotional experience for a person to learn that he is dying. We have no precise way of knowing the wide range of emotions that are stirred up within each individual person, since each person is different from every other person. The realization that death is near is frightening. When family members learn that one of their own faces death, it both catalyzes certain emotions and paralyzes other emotions. The nurse, physician, or clergyperson who seeks to help a dying person should expect a variety of emotions to be displayed by the individual.
