This is from another forum that I'm a member of. It struck me as being something that people everywhere could benefit from at one time or another. I asked the person who posted it for permission to post it here, and he graciously gave it. At the end is a link to an organization that has a program in which people do this sort of thing for others. I think it's pretty amazing:


"There isn't really much to the story, but it was the first time I was present at someone's death and I found it a remarkable experience.

Rosemary was eighty two years old when she died a short while ago and I had known her for over twenty.
She used to own the small property we bought a year and a half ago and she rented an apartment from us.

Just before Christmas she told us that she felt her heart was getting weaker and she didn't think it would keep going for much longer.
For a number of weeks after that she would invite friends over to say their goodbyes and we would see them leaving with gifts of her personal belongings..books. paintings..CDs....photographs......"everyone is saying goodbye but noone is talking about it" she said laughing.

One thing she really liked was having musician friends come over and 'practice' at her place during the daytime to keep her company, so each day my wife and I were lucky enough to hear Bach or Brahms or whomever, played on the cello, piano, violin or whatever as we had lunch.

"Don't forget Saturday morning you two, we're having the quintet over to play the Schubert" she said.
The trout quintet was her favorite piece of music.

On friday my wife and I had to go away for the day and didn't know untill we came home in the evening that Rosemary had had a heart attack that morning and was unconscious, so a bunch of us stayed up with her over night.

Next morning, five friends arrived all dressed in tuxedoes and
with their instruments, started to set up in the living room to play Schubert's Trout while Rosemary did her part in the next room.
This may seem strange to most folks, but knowing Rosemary as well as we all did, there wasn't one of us who thought that she would want it any other way.

A few of us were with Rosemary as the music started.
Then a few minutes into the recital the phone rang so I went to answer it and stayed by it so there would be no more interuptions.

When I went back to Rosemary's room after the music ended forty minutes later, she had changed.
Literaly, as the musicians were leaving, her breathing stopped, and over the next fifteen minutes or so her pulse got weaker and faded.

So seven of us stood round her bed, each with a glass of Cognac, and we toasted to Rosemary.

I don't know how many ways there are of dying with dignity but this was definitely one of them.
Not only in the dying itself, but also in the time spent prepairing for it.

A few days before she died Rosemary was in high spirits and joined in on the heavy laughter and fun.
When her carer said to her, "Rosemary, do you think you should be getting so excited?", she laughed and said, "I'm dying! Let me laugh".

That was Rosemary."

The Music for Healing and Transition Program