In the old days, children were familiar with birth and death as part of life. Now this is perhaps the first generation of American youngsters who have never been close by during of the birth a baby and have never experienced the death of a family member. Nowadays when people grow old, we often send them to nursing homes. When they get sick, we send them to a hospital, where children are forbidden to visit terminally  in patients-- even when those patients are their parents. This deprives the dying patient of family members during the last few days of his life and it deprives the children of an experience of death, which is an important learning experience. Some of my colleagues and I once interviewed and followed about 500 terminally in order to find out what they could teach us and how we could be of more benefit, not just to them but to the members of their families as well. We were most impressed by the fact that even those patients who were not told of their serious illness were quite aware of its potential outcome. It is important for family members, and doctors and nurses to understand these patients' communication in order to truly understand their needs, fears and fantasies  . Most of our patients welcomed another human being with whom they could talk openly, honestly, and frankly about their trouble. Many of them shared with us their great need to be informed, to be kept up - to - date on their medical condition and to be told when the end was near. We found out that patients who had been dealt with openly and frankly were better able to cope with the coming of detach and finally to reach a true stage of acceptance before death. The need of a dying patient for people to accompany him shows  _  .
his wish for communication with other people his fear of death his unwillingness to die he feels very upset about his condition