LibraryScenariosHow to repair harm when the person is gone
Scenario

How to repair harm when the person is gone

I said something cruel to my mother during her cancer treatment that I immediately regretted and she died before I could properly apologize and now I don't know how to live with that.

Juana
Online
The coach is replying

More people experience this than they realize.

What we've seen

The impossibility of direct amends forces a confrontation with how accountability must sometimes transform into a different kind of moral work when restoration is no longer possible.

Ideas that help explain it
Worth thinking about

“Where Are You with Punitive vs. restorative approaches to harm?”

If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.