Once again, this accompanying of Dimitri proves that the period right before death can allow for a significant transformation of one's very being. What Dimitri has been searching for all his life in one love affair after another is this very revelation of his own goodness, which he has found at last on the very threshold of death. Perhaps what was required was something like the episode of his vomiting for him to know that he is fully accepted and loved as a human being, and that drawing on this internal security, he can dare to be himself, in all his gentleness and love.
— Marie de Hennezel, Intimate Death by Marie de Hennezel, Carol Brown Janeway, translator