Advice from the writer Dana Jennings, in his cancer blog at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/with-cancer-lets-face-it-words-are-inadequate/
"...Words can just be inadequate. And as we stumble and trip toward trying to say the right and true thing, we often reach for the nearest rotted-out cliché for support. Better to say nothing, and offer the gift of your presence, than to utter bankrupt bromides.
Silences make us squirm. But when I was sickest, most numbed by my treatment, it was more than healing to bask in a friend’s compassionate silence, to receive and give a hug, to be sustained by a genuine smile. ... "
I've heard other cancer patients say the same thing.
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