After my heart attack, while I did appreciate kind-hearted friends and family who said: “Just call me if there’s anything at all that I can do for you!” – I knew that I was not going to call them to ask: “Can you come over and change the kitty litter?” That was just never going to happen.
By comparison, I found it truly helpful when people phoned and said something like: “I’m at the grocery store – what can I pick up for you while I’m here?”
Dr. Elvira Aletta might agree. I particularly liked her essay called Ten Things To Say To A Sick Friend, originally inspired by author and speaker Lisa Copen, founder of Invisible Illness Week (and coincidentally my fellow inductee named by ‘Our Bodies, Ourselves’ as one of their Women’s Health Heroes for 2009) who asked her Twitter followers:
“What would be a good thing to say to a sick person?”
Dr. Aletta compiled a sampling of these 10 suggestions taken from Lisa’s Twitter community’s helpful tips: (more…)
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