Wrestling the Angel of Death

Blazing Reader,

My mother passed away this morning at 12:20 am while I was holding her hand and stroking her hair. Forty minutes earlier, she had decided to discontinue the life support she had been on since entering the intensive care unit four long days ago.

She said to me that she realized she was putting herself through purgatory only to delay heaven. She also said it was "such a joke" the doctors were playing on her — pretending she could somehow survive.

Unlike my wife's passing — which seemed like she grew wings and flew away — my mother's transition felt like she was wrestling the Angel of Death.

As painful as it was watching this literal fight to the death, the feeling of peace Mom exuded when she breathed her last was worth the entire ordeal.

For the last hours of her life, we listened to this wonderful playlist of classical music selected specifically for "dying softly" — including works of Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Vivaldi and Brahms. These haunting masterpieces were what ushered my mother to the other side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcjv7nKYDsk

I love you, Mom and hope you're having a great time in the great beyond.

John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/