DR. WALLACE: My uncle was recently involved in a very bad accident. He's in the hospital and is laid up pretty badly. Our entire family went to visit him a few days after it first happened, and it was horrific seeing him lying there with all the medical paraphernalia attached to him and running out of his body to keep him going.

I've heard that he's going to be in the hospital for quite some time, but they do expect him to gradually improve.

I'm one of three siblings, and our parents have instructed us to make sure we each visit our uncle at least once per week for an hour. I personally am terrified about this, as I don't know that I could sit there looking at him for an entire hour without almost passing out. Can you think of a good excuse for me to be able to opt out of this duty? Maybe I can do extra chores around the house or clean out the garage instead? — Very Uncomfortable With This, via email

VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS: Your letter did not mention whether your uncle can talk, but for the purposes of giving you some advice, I'll assume that he can't. If he can, obviously you should talk to him about some of his favorite topics and good experiences that he and your family enjoyed together.

I feel it's important that you do your best to try to follow their wishes here, rather than seeking to opt out without giving it a try.

Before your first visit, get some books, music or reading materials about topics you know your uncle cares about. You can say hello to him for the first few minutes. Let him know you're going to spend some time with him and you're sending every possible wish to him for the best and fastest recovery. Then, spend time playing his favorite music and reading him something that's meaningful to him. During this time, you can focus on the music and on the stories, letters, newspaper or magazine articles or whatever it is you plan to read with him. This will also help you to focus more on communicating with him or enjoying with him rather than simply staring silently at his wounded body.

If you can find the strength to do this, I trust you'll feel better once you're finished, and you'll be proud that you helped a relative in need. If you can successfully do this once, future visits will gradually get easier. Hopefully, your uncle will recover, and yourbond with him will be strengthened tremendously via your empathy, compassion and loving concern for him.

IS LUCK REAL?

DR. WALLACE: Do you believe in luck? It seems that some of my friends are luckier than I am. However, I'll admit that I do feel luckier than some people, too. — Curious, via email

CURIOUS: I believe that life is often random and that both good and unfortunate luck in does exist. But I also believe that hard work, diligence and an ability to stick with important tasks and goals often creates what some people call "good luck."

Almost every human being has opportunities to improve their circumstances with positive, proactive actions in one form or another in various aspects of life.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: camilo jimenez at Unsplash