A Class Act

Just got an email from a friend who's nursing a mutual friend during what doctors say will be her last few days. Lung cancer, although she's never smoked. Our friend is consecrated in one of those "new movements," and is dying as she's lived, witness this account from my email buddy:

---'s mom came to visit her just recently. Her cancer has made her very weak and tired --she's mostly confined to bed or a chair--but when she was saying good-bye to her mom for the last time, she stood up, gave her mom a hug and waved good-bye with a big smile on her face.

The instant her mom left, she collapsed. I asked her how she was able to summon such energy for her mom's visit. It wasn't just the superhuman effort to get up and say goodbye, but her effort during the whole visit. She said, "Last impressions are so important. I didn't want Mom to remember me as someone who was suffering."