In this two-part series, Rachel & Tanvi sit down with Anita Krishnan to talk about the inevitable, awkward, earth shattering concept of our parents’ mortality. The anticipatory anxiety, the just before, the during, the after - and how to make meaning of it all. 

Tanvi met Anita at a coaching training when they were both at Harvard, and quickly realised how comfortable Anita was talking about the taboo. Anita suddenly lost her older brother, Rajiv, when she was 20, and then spent her 30s caring for her mum, Meera, before her recent passing just after Anita turned 40. 

• If you are someone who has lost a parent or someone you love, we hope you find resonance, validation and new meaning from this conversation. 
• If you are someone who thinks about their parents’ aging and mortality as often as we do - solidarity. The only way we can think to make it slightly less scary is to talk about it. 
• If you are someone that was alarmed by the title of this episode, and isn’t ready to go there yet, come back when you feel ready. As Anita says, a healthy dose of denial is essential when it comes to dealing with grief. We’re sharing our ‘denial blanket’ with you. 

“I imagined a sound system. Pain and grief are set at the level they are at – you can’t turn them down. So what do you do? You have to turn everything else up around them. And as you keep turning up the other knobs – of adventure and love and fulfilment and gratitude – your life becomes louder, more colourful, and more of an orchestrated beauty.” - Anita Krishnan

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Hosted by Rachel Stephenson Sheff & Tanvi Girotra - hello@fortheyoungish.com