If you want to avoid being that person who has serious regrets at the end of your life, Seattle hospice nurse Eileen Geller says there are five things you want to make sure you say to the people you love before you die.

“Thank you, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, and goodbye.”  Read her full story here.

“Hospice care is really Velveteen Rabbit real.  There’s not all the ‘better thans’ and the ‘thing things’ and all the busy stuff that clutters our lives. You don’t worry about all the places to go and the things to get,” she says.

Over the years, she’s learned that who you are in life is who you are in death. She says people often realize that when they’re at death’s door and doing a “life review.”

Hospice nurses and social workers at Regional Hospice and Home Care of Western Connecticut agree that life review is an important part of end of life.  And those same five things are also critical for loved ones to say to the patient as well.

“Never assume that the person cannot hear if they don’t respond—hearing is said to be the last of the senses to be lost,” said Cheryl Koeber, director of counseling services at Regional Hospice and Home Care. 

 Saying those five things could contribute to living without serious regrets as well as dying in peace.