Death

"¢ Rabbi Daniel Smith witnessed two deaths that were very different from each other. He was called out in the middle of the night to see a dying woman, who told him, "œRabbi, they tell me I am dying, and I want you to make sure that my daughter does not get my mink coat." The woman also told him about her other valuables, including jewelry, and she told him that she did not want her daughter to get those, either.

Of course, the good Rabbi was shocked and told her, "Madam, you don't want a Rabbi. You want a lawyer!" She replied, "I know, but no lawyer would come out at this time of night." In the morning, the woman saw a lawyer, and then she died.

The other death was that of a woman who was estranged from much of her family, and she felt guilty because of this. The good Rabbi suggested that she talk both to God and to the members of her family and ask for forgiveness. The woman did just that, praying to God and talking in person to the living members of her family as well as talking mentally with the deceased members of her family. The woman was expected to die in a day or two, but she lived three more weeks. Rabbi Smith says, "When she died, she was at peace. In her death she had become fully alive. Those three weeks have remained a precious source of wonder for her family and for me. It is so rare for a Rabbi to feel really useful."

"¢ Dr. John Hunter, the mentor of Dr. Edward Jenner, the man who discovered a vaccine for smallpox, died of angina pectoris, which is caused by hardening of the vessels that bring blood to the heart. Anger raises the blood pressure, putting even more pressure on the heart, and a weak heart will stop beating. Dr. Hunter had gotten angry at some colleagues during a meeting, and then died. He knew that he might die in this way, having written, "My life is in the hands of any fool who cares to upset me."

Dr. Jenner discovered the cause of angina pectoris. After a patient died of it, Dr. Jenner got permission to perform an autopsy. His knife grated against a whitish substance blocking the vessels that bring blood to the heart. This was so unexpected that at first he wondered if plaster had fallen down from the ceiling. Dr. Jenner wrote Dr. Caleb Hillier, "I was making a transverse section of the heart pretty near its base, when my knife struck against something so hard and gritty, as to notch it. I well remember looking up to the ceiling, which was old and crumbling, conceiving that some plaster had fallen down. But on a further scrutiny the real cause appeared: the [blood vessels] were become bony canals."

"¢ Folk tales can contain truth, even if it is not literal truth. Eros, the god of Love who shoots arrows at human beings, especially on Saint Valentine's Day and in the spring, lay down to rest in a cave that belonged to Death, who shoots arrows at people, especially in their old age. Unfortunately, while napping, Eros kicked his quiver of arrows, and his arrows that bring Love became mixed with the arrows of Death that bring death. When Eros woke up, he could not distinguish his arrows from the arrows that belonged to Death. Since Eros knew how many arrows he had brought to the cave, he picked up that number of arrows, guessing as well as he could which arrows were truly his but knowing that he would pick up some arrows that belonged to Death and would leave behind some arrows that belonged to him. That is why occasionally an old person will fall in love and occasionally a young person will die.

"¢ Some of Adam Green's music was featured in the 2007 hit movie "Juno," bringing him fame and making him the subject of interviews in the media in which he tells some of his favorite anecdotes. For example, he broke a tooth while eating a bagel, necessitating a titanium replacement. His dentist used a substance that became a subject of conversation at a subsequent meeting in which his dentist told him, "Hey, remember when we pulled out your tooth? We put some replacement bone material up in there to promote healing." The dentist said that the replacement bone material came from a human cadaver, and then added, "The problem is that... have you been reading the news lately? Well, this guy stole all these bodies from this funeral home in New Jersey, and you are the recipient of this, like, stolen body part." Mr. Green grins and says, "It turned out I got the bones of Alistair Cooke!"

"¢ Some people live their lives according to how they perceive God wants them to live their lives. When the ancient teacher Confucius was dying, his disciples asked if they should pray for him. Confucius replied, "My life has been my prayer." Earlier, he had been appointed to the post of minister of justice for the duke of Lu. However, the duke of Lu was given 80 women. Confucius advised him to turn down the decadent gift. The duke of Lu refused, and Confucius resigned his highly coveted position.

"¢ After his first wife died, celebrity photographer Richard Young was left with a void and two motherless children. As you would expect, he was depressed for a while and in desperate need of a nanny. One day he saw a policewoman giving his Harley a parking ticket, and he went over to her and begged her not to give him a ticket, saying that he had recently suffered the death of his wife and he had two young sons who needed a nanny. Luck was with him. The policewoman told him that she was tired of being a policewoman, and she became his two young sons' nanny.

"¢ Wilson Mizner and Paul Armstrong wrote several plays together, but they frequently argued over who should get the credit for writing various parts of their plays. When Mr. Armstrong died and a minister gave his eulogy at the funeral, Mr. Mizner said, "That's the only thing Paul didn't say he wrote."