The best possible death - LOH #160

The thing that bothered me very much as my mother was approaching her end was her fear of dying. She’d say things like ‘I know I don’t have much left” or swear she wanted to die as her various ailments were making her miserable every single day. Deep inside, though, she was afraid and she was always desperately trying to find a cure for the incurable. A couple of days before her death last year she got into her mind she had Covid and talked about getting tested. Her reasoning was that there are medicines for Covid and she’d get well. As it happened, she did not have Covid. Her body was shutting down, something her mind was not ready to accept.

If they told me I was about to die I wouldn’t do anything to fight it. When you have something like a heart condition you take some pills to keep it under control as long as you can. That’s OK. But when you’re told you have a terminal illness it’s generally cancer and, no, I don’t want any of the treatments that make your last months or even years miserable. No, thank you. One of my sisters tried various miracle drugs and it was horrible.

As the prompt says, death is inevitable and at a certain point fighting it is a struggle against reality. Dying is the chance to find the answer to the fundamental question that has been plaguing mankind for thousands of years. Probably more than that, but we have little information on what did our more distant ancestors make of it. Since I gave up on organized religion I have no idea on what lies beyond the veil of death. The psychoanalysis books I’ve been reading lately give no clear answer. At best, there’s a glimmer of hope that maybe part of your consciousness survives. Some say that the dreams of the dying point to some sort of rebirth. That would be quite cool, wouldn’t it?

Rather than fight a fight that cannot be won, I think one should make the most of the time they have left. Spending time with your loved ones would be the obvious option, but only up to a point. I’d want quality time, not just sitting around crossing out the days on the calendar. If anything, we should strive for quality time with our loved ones before Death comes knocking on your door. (Even while writing this I'm in a great mood as I just got us tickets to another concert next month. That's quality time. And, in the run-up to Christmas, traditionally a great occasion for quality time!)

Hope I don't get dumped in a bog. I'd rather not spend eternity in a museum!

Which brings me to the best possible death I can imagine.

I found the best possible death in Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama Omnibus. The protagonist of the first books in the series, Nicole, gets to live a very long life and ends up on a huge alien ship. These aliens travel the Universe collecting samples of the populations they come across and pretty much know all the secrets of creation. At some point they tell Nicole there’s nothing more they can do to prolong her life. She must prepare for the end. The old woman spends some time with her family and they say their good-byes. When there’s nothing left to say and the alien very smart computers indicate she has only hours left to live, she is granted a special favor. One alien gives her a tour of their huge space station and lets her see miraculous creatures in their various habitats and tells her as much as he can cram in the short time she has about the history of the Universe since the beginning. She understands everything and her final words are: “Understanding is happiness”.

I would like to understand many more things than my brief existence on this Earth would allow me. However, since I don’t have much of a chance to meet benevolent aliens I would spend time reading and trying to understand what life is all about. Hopefully, death would also come with some answers.

There's also the best place to die. I found this spot on our trip to Sicily a couple of months ago. All the rocks you can see are what's left of some Greek fortifications the locals built to fight the Romans. Or vice versa. Doesn't really matter. What matters is the sheer beauty of this place and the serene atmosphere. What's better than to die while enjoying the sun by the sea? Also, it helps putting things into perspective. The people who built those walls died thousands of years ago. The world went on without them. This is how it has to be. Two thousands years from now others will walk the Earth and wonder at what we left behind. Nothing to be afraid of.

Thanks for reading