I’ve sat with a number of people during their last hours, and it has been inspiring rather than depressing, often because of their last words. I remember one said, “Thanks for everything.” A friend told me her mother said, “I’m so happy.”
There is also an unexpected emotion when someone dies. It’s not logical as we intellectually know that eventually everyone dies, but we still often feel surprised when it actually happens. We tend to wonder, “How can so and so not be here anymore?” It’s more of a feeling than a thought.
Perhaps we feel that way because they still exist, just not in the physical world. I’ve talked to many people who have “heard” from loved ones after they died. I can totally relate. There is also the feeling that they are still close, a feeling that I really don’t have words for.
If any of you have similar experiences one day and worry that you may be going crazy, get in touch with me. We can happily be crazy together. Happy, because it is the kind of loving feeling that is very comforting as well as reassuring, in the sense that perhaps the truth is—one day when we are dead and gone, we won’t really be gone.
Here is a poem I wrote entitled “From One Who Has Gone On”
Yesterday I was here
to hold you in my heart.
Today I still am near
although we are apart.
There is the thinnest veil
through which you cannot see.
But if you could, your heart would sing
because you would—see me!
I have gone on ahead
to where we all began.
You once were where I am now
and will be once again.
So cry your tears of loss
for days that now are gone.
But one day you will understand
and sing a joyful song.
