“So, what does it feel like to die?” asks Richard Stephens (The dead zone, G2, 2 March). My brother was in the stage of long, long breaths with lots of time between them. When he looked dead, I shouted his name in his ear.
Brother: “Don’t shout at me. Why am I not dead? I dreamed I was dead.”
Me: “I think you are not dead for the same reason as the rest of us. We’re waiting to die and don’t know when we are going to die. But I think you are going to die very soon because you are very ill and weak.”
Silence. Some very slow breaths.
Me: “What’s it like for you?”
Longer silence, but eventually he breathed in once more, and as he let the breath out he whispered: “Fine.” That helped me. It was a lovely last present.
Peter Bruggen
London
