My wifes mother has been struggling with health issues, namely cancer and its treatment the past few years and sadly, we got news last night from the doctors in Aomori that she may only have a week or so l left, so my wife is emergency flying to Japan to be with her. I’m American and married my wife in Hawaii in 2019 after I got to meet her mom and dad for the first time and they really took to me, even my wifes dad who has a bit of a grumpy traditional japanese man mentality accepted me and my asking for permission to marry his daughter.
My wife immigrated to America in late 2020 and her relationship has been strained with her parents for some time, namely due to abuse from her dad to her and her mother along with drinking issues. It did get better after my wife moved away to be with me but fights still happened and my wifes brother is basically estranged from the family after years of issues.
Now its very sadly come to this, Hideko-san my beloved mother in law just won’t pull through and we knew she was on borrowed time so i went and visited them during Thanksgiving last year and it was wonderful to see and spend time with her, I managed to communicate in basic Japanese and google translate and got to meet my wife grandmother as well and we had a really good dinner together and my father in law served me plenty of wine and sake and we talked a good amount of various things, my wife was so proud of me of how I did despite how scared I was.
My parents and my sister have sent nice gifts to my mother in law over the years and pictures of my 4 neices along with hand made gifts they made for her, so we have really done our best to “tie” our familes together despite the long distance and I feel it really helped my MIL during her cancer treatments that my family was always thinking about and praying for her
My wife and her family are traditional Japanese Shinto and Buddah beliefs and I come from a Lutheran background but I have never forced my christianity on my wife but we have discussed and talked about my beliefs and I very much tend to keep an open mind about religions across the world though I feel Jesus Christ is the best and only way to seeing the Lord in the end and being saved, but I’ve never had chance or comfort to try and tell and teach that to my mother and father in law as i’ve only seen them twice face to face.
I would like to know what I can do to help support my wife and her family during this very sad and hard time to help honor and respect Japanese traditions when it comes to death in the family, even though I am so far way as I cannot join my wife on sudden flight. Any help or incite would be greatly appreciated.
ご武運を（祈りいたします）
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/11qg6lw/mother_in_law_doesnt_have_long_health_wise_what/