I think the death and dying phase is exquisitely difficult to experience. You love them and don't want them to go but there it is in your face, day after day, and day after day the only thing that happens is that they get worse. But you remember them healthy, that is the norm, so when they deteriorate, that deterioration is always an affront to what you've experienced with them.
I try to build extra value into the time I spend with my loved ones so that when they do dying and death, I have more to remember them by.