"I had grown accustomed to seeing death through medical eyes; my father's cancer forced me to experience terminal illness from the vantage point of a patient's family. Furthermore, through my father's eyes, I glimpsed dying from the point of view of a person living in the shadow of death. Dad's dying was certainly not the happiest time in our family's life, but as a family we had never been more intimate, more open, or more openly loving. His illness allowed us, I could say forced us, to talk about the things that mattered: family, our relationships witih one another, our shared past, and the unknown future. We reminisced about good times and bad, we cried, and we laughed. We apologized for a host of transgressions, and we granted, and were granted, forgiveness. Through Dad's illness and in his dying, we all grew individually and together."
Dying Well The Prospect for Growth at the End of Life
A story of how the dying often pass on gifts to the living.