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Get 12 free conversation cards from This Season: a conversation card game for families navigating aging and illness. Print them, cut them out, and bring them to the table.
You'll also get a welcome and occasional notes from Northern Lights Living, plus first word when the full deck is available in early 2027. We respect your inbox and your privacy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
You know you need to talk about it. You just don't know how to start.
Maybe you've noticed things. The fridge that's a little too empty. The bill that didn't get paid. The story you've heard three times this month on repeat.
Every time the phone rings, part of you wonders... is this the call?
You want to bring it up. But every time you try, it feels like you're about to take something away from them. So the conversation gets shut down before it starts, and you go back to waiting and seeing.
Maybe you're feeling:
• Guilty for even thinking about it
• Worn down by constant worry
• Unsure what your mom or dad actually want
And underneath it all is the question that keeps coming up:
"How do I respect their independence, keep them safe, and still be their kid... not just their caregiver?"
Most families wait until a fall, a diagnosis, or a hospital stay forces the conversation. By then, decisions get made in a hallway, under pressure, and nobody feels heard.
After 25 years in aging and disability services, I can tell you the families who do best aren't the ones with all the answers. They're the ones who started talking early.
Most families don't realize that you don't have to wait for a crisis to begin discovering what matters most to the people you love.
Your free sample includes 12 printable cards, four from each of the game's three card types, plus simple instructions so anyone in the family can host.
Appreciate
Examine
Envision
Start with who someone has been and what they value.
Look honestly at how life has changed, and where it is right now.
Talk about what comes next, and what matters most to protect.
"What does a peaceful, comfortable day at home look like for you right now?"
"If life were divided into chapters, what would the title of your current chapter be?"
"What's a value your elders passed down that still guides you?"
1
2
3
4
5
Print the cards, cut them out, and stack them face down.
Pick someone to host and read the short instructions out loud.
Open by naming the person at the center of your Circle of Care.
Flip a card and talk. Stay with it as long as you like, or move to the next card anytime.
Close with one question: What did you take away, and how will you keep the conversation going?
Play around the kitchen table. Over a video call with your brother across the country. Or on your own, as a journaling exercise before you visit. Your mom or dad can play with you, or not. Participation is always a choice.
I've spent 25 years in aging and disability services. I've been the case manager, the quality assurance manager, and the person families called when they didn't know what came next.
Then my cousin moved in with my husband and me, after her parents could no longer care for her. So I've sat on both sides of the table. I know how the system works from the inside, and I know what it feels like to lie awake wondering if you missed something.
My work is rooted in one belief: care should support the life someone wants to live.
These cards are how I'd want my own family to begin.
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