Seeking a bit of comfort, I went to different friends who I knew had lost a parent to speak about the experience.
I hadn't expected it, but a couple of friends had truly traumatic losses. One of them was due to locked-in syndrome.
After a stroke, my friend's dad had this happen to him. It really changes what you feel about death. Initially, there's the fighting stage. You want to do everything for your loved one to survive. I wanted my dad to eat better and exercise. He wanted just for his dad to wake up.
He'd get ill often, and the doctors would give him antibiotics and whatever therapy was needed. It lasted for years, no wake up. Time passed, numerous visits came and went. Eventually the family decided it might be better to let the next illness end it, so they agreed with the medical staff on what to do, and made their final thoughts.
Incredibly, the next infection took years to come. In a twisted irony, the family spent years hoping for improvement, then years hoping for the end.
Weirdly this wasn't even the worst story of the ones I collected. It's just a reminder that things could have been much worse. We tend to not think about death too much, it's grim and challenges our ideas about who we are and what the good life is.