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# Death
- URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/death/
- Published: 2020-12-17T23:12:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T03:49:30.000Z
- Author: James A. Reeves
- Tags: Notebook

So much thinking about death these days, yet I rarely think about my own. Maybe it’s the silence in this room tonight or a certain quality of the light, but thinking about my own ending unexpectedly brought to mind an incident in Rome four years ago.

An elderly man collapsed against the base of a Bernini. There was the slap and shudder of a body hitting the floor, followed by the split-second of shocked silence after a medical event. We gathered around him, not knowing how to help yet needing to bear witness. I did not know the Italian number for 911\. His wife sat on the floor and cradled his head; the authorities arrived quickly. He was breathing and nodding as we drifted away to give them privacy. And I remember thinking that if it’s necessary to leave this world, dying in the arms of someone I love at the foot of a Bernini might be the best possible place.

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#### [Claro Intelecto – Beautiful Death](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Beautiful%20Death.mp3?ref=jamesreeves.co)

###### Metanarrative | Modern Love, 2008 | [More](https://boomkat.com/products/metanarrative?ref=jamesreeves.co)

[http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Beautiful%20Death.mp3](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Beautiful%20Death.mp3?ref=jamesreeves.co)