Dear Prudence,
My sister has metastatic cancer, and recently her condition has worsened. I am her only sibling, and we are both young adults. Our parents are going on vacation for a week next month (they planned it before my sister’s condition worsened), and I am taking off work and staying with my sister during that week. My question is: Our family has many friends who have offered to help “in any way” during this stressful time. My sister and I are college age and don’t have the wherewithal to cook for ourselves all the time. So I think it would be reasonable to tell people (if they specifically ask how to help) that they could bring us a frozen meal or two to eat during the week. My mother thinks this is a bad idea because she is embarrassed that we would be asking for anything while she and my dad are on vacation. I argue that it allows our wonderful friends to tangibly help, it is for a limited time frame, and it will give us way better nutrition than we would have otherwise. I feel like it’s prudent. What do you think?