- Serious illness/childbirth far from help: this is why Where There Is No Doctor is stocked — it has real protocols (dehydration, infection, delivery, fractures). Identify who nearby has clinical skills NOW.
- Death in a long emergency: documentation (photos, written record, effects kept for family), burial deep and 60+ m from water, marked. Communities that handle this with dignity hold together; it's also disease control.
- Grief and trauma: routines, jobs, talking, and the morale box are the treatment you'll actually have. Watch the quiet ones. Long-crisis mental health is as lethal as hunger — plan for it like a supply.
- Triage honesty: in true no-help scenarios, effort goes where it changes outcomes. Pre-thinking this once, calmly, is kinder than improvising it.
The hard pages
The grim ones: childbirth without help, death in a long emergency, grief, and honest triage.