Normally, I include the photographs themselves when I post items from my Flickr photostream. In this particular case, however, perhaps it’s best instead simply to link to the one called Deathbed and let the reader decide for themselves whether or not they wish to see it.
It is precisely what the title says, and of the person whose deathbed photograph you might expect me to have taken.
Early on the evening of April 10, before we all left the hospital for the final time, I insisted on taking a moment alone in the room specifically to take this photo. I’ve waited until today, what would have been his birthday, to upload it.
It seems as though his “voice,” which was the essence of his soul, was released through his mouth. There is something right about that photo. It might be troublesome to some who view it. The actual moment of a person’s death is not something most people get to see — at least they don’t until a situation such as yours. This is how it will end for all of us.
i feel moved and honored to have the privilege to view something so deeply personal as this. when i look at it i am reminded of the viewing of my maternal grandparents - the only two times i have been to open-casket funerals - and the profound sense that the “person” i had known was gone from this shell, but was NOT absent. i had an intense awareness of the presence of their personalities, both times, as if they had proceeded to the next evolutionary level rather than “gone away” somewhere.
one also has a sense, viewing this mortal coil, of the weight of all that the individual has at last laid down. it is perhaps the reason why it rings to me as both a solemn as well as a joyful occasion.
r@d@r’s comment moved me quite a lot. Thanks for leaving it.