We seem to run a lot of stories about people dying. They leave us with glimpses of heaven, their final visions of loved ones or pets who await them, descriptions of escorting angels. I always feel uplifted after reading one of these stories, and the best ones make me think that my death will be an adventure, something to look forward to. Who wants to fear the inevitable?
Read More: 12 Things Not to Say to Someone Who Is Grieving
Ninety-year-old Pat Miller of Hinsdale, Illinois, certainly doesn’t. I opened her letter today:
“After my father died,” Pat wrote, “my mother stayed with my younger sister for several busy, happy years. When her health changed she spent some loving, comfortable years with me, her nurse daughter. After she died, we waited till lovely weather and invited all her old friends to a luncheon. One dear old friend of the family, an elderly gentleman, seemed upset, as he’d just learned Mama had died on his birthday.
“‘But Uncle Mylan,’ I said, ‘going to heaven is one of the most wonderful things that can happen to you, and Mama chose your birthday to go!’
“Uncle Mylan was quiet. He was thinking.
“Later I heard his voice above the talkative group, as cheerful as could be. ‘And June chose my birthday to join her husband, Bill! I feel honored!”
Pat Miller knew her mom’s journey was one to be celebrated, and Uncle Mylan? Well, he went so far as to see it as a love story. How beautiful is that?
