pet’s death in advance

Turning vague, unacknowledged feelings of grief before loss into action and a celebration of life like a living funeral sounds good to me. There is no need to see anticipatory grief as being premature.and peculiar.

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loss takes place, “they will have ‘used up’ all their grief, or that it will be easier when the loss happens”.

way, it does not work that way. Grief can be a bottomless pit.

Dr Alan Wolfelt, a director of the Center for Loss and Life Transition in Colorado, the US, told The New York Times that some anticipatory grievers imagine that by the time their loss takes place, “they will have ‘used up’ all their grief, or that it will be easier when the loss happens”. “That’s a misconception,” he added. “It’s still hard”

All is not lost though.

Anticipatory grief can be used for good.

You could use the strong emotion as motivation to act now: from expressing your feelings to the loved ones while they are still around, to thinking through unbearable decisions you may have to make - like when should you pull the plug — while you have time to calmly do so.