How to tell daughter about her dying best friend

I never thought I would have to write this post. I truly thought everything would work out, that everything was supposed to be how...well...how it's supposed to be.My oldest daughter's best friend (K) since they were both 3 was diagnosed with brain cancer just before her 5th birthday, and right after her mother walked out- leaving just her and her dad.Our daughters are 9 now, and in those 4 years the cancer has come back three times. K has been a trooper through all of the treatments, surgeries, scans, blood work, etc. Her bubbly personality has never once popped. Her dad and I have become good friends and our girls have developed an even stronger friendship. I've become a somewhat surrogate mother for K. Her dad has me listed as her emergency contact at their school. Every time I see her she begs to come home with me, which 9/10 I'll oblige. She always has so much fun over here and usually ends up staying a few days. My husband and I absolutely adore her and would drop everything for her.Her dad messaged me back in April wanting to talk. K's cancer had come back again. He told me the treatment plan and was confident that K would beat it again. In August, he told me that the most recent scan had shown that nothing had changed. So they changed treatment plans to something a lot more aggressive. K has obviously been missing a lot of school and due to the constant and severe treatments, we also have not seen a lot of her. Her dad messaged me tonight, needing to talk. He told me that the doctors have given K a year at most, and anything the doctors do now just buys her time. As far as I know, she is unaware of her prognosis and I have been sworn to secrecy.So while I've spent these last couple of hours crying, I started to cry harder at the thought of even trying to tell my daughter about her best friend when the time comes. My daughter knows that K has been sick for a long time. She knows that it's cancer and somewhat gets the gist of what it is. When it's time to tell her...how do I do it? How do I tell my daughter that her best friend is dying? How do I appear strong for her when I'm really wanting to just cry it out with her? Or is that okay? In all this time, I never once thought that I'd have to have that conversation with her. I always had the best hope, always convincing myself that this ugly sickness wouldn't take K. My daughter has never worried about the life or death part of it. Her biggest worry was that the doctors were drawing too much blood or that K wouldn't be able to breathe through her radiation mask. I know that no matter what is said, how it's said...the message is the same and my daughter's world will come crashing down. How do I ease the fall? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2qWN5mB