10 Important Questions to Ask Your Parents Before They Pass Away

Before It’s Too Late

Lauren Barrett Writes
5 min readNov 30, 2023
An older lady kissing a younger female on the forehead. Both are seated or kneeling
Photo by 𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞𝔯𝔶 𝔭𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔩𝔱𝔞 on Unsplash

I always thought I would get more time with my mom. I figured I would have plenty of time to ask her life’s important, deep, and emotional questions when she got proverbially old. I did not. She died very unexpectedly still in excellent health when I was 34.

While I fortunately did not take her for granted -we had a great relationship and did and saw many things together. I did, on the other hand, take time for granted and wished I would have asked her more of the following questions in this article.

I know the subject of mortality can be an uncomfortable, scary, and taboo topic to broach with your parents, but, trust me, you’ll feel better and comforted having the answers to these questions once they do die.

10 Questions to Ask Your Parents

1. What are your funeral wishes?

What songs do you want at your funeral? Do you want any certain scripture readings or someone to say the mass? Do you want a religious or non-religious funeral? Do you want to be cremated or buried? If cremated, where do you want me to keep or scatter the ashes? If buried, where do you want to be buried? How would you like to be remembered at the funeral?

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