My parents have always tried to shelter me from trauma (divorces, illnesses and deaths in the family, and so on) which makes it difficult to broach the subject of death with them. This is more of an issue as they grow older and others in their generation grow ill or die. What are good ways to persuade them that they can talk to me about these events, rather than continue to try to 'protect' me from them by not mentioning them?
For added difficulty, I live about 7,000 miles and 8 time zones away from my parents, so starting a casual conversation probably isn't as easy as if we were in the same town - anything in particular that can be recommended to overcome this?