死 - Death

They say that the last thing that stops working when you die, is your sense of hearing.
Your eyesight goes away. You can't speak. You can't move your body.
But the hearing stays, until the very moment when your heart stops beating.

During the summers I work at an 'Elders Care Home'. Being around old people, those who are sick, or just old, makes you think a lot about death and how lives end. How you want to die... and how you will handle it, when the time comes for someone in your family, or someone close to you.

I know for a fact there's one thing I think is the most important of all. No one should ever have to die alone. I think it is also the thing that scares me the most, to die and have no one by my side.
At work there are times when you sit by someone's bed, someone who is about to die.
I work the night shift, and relatives can't always be there, or maybe they don't have any relatives. So at those times we sit by their side during the night, so they wont have to be alone.

When it's me sitting there, I stroke their arm, hum on some song or just talk to them. I don't know if they can feel my presence, or hear my voice. But if the sense of hearing is the last thing that goes away, its worth a try to make your presence known. Just moving or saying something, I think they can feel someone is there. And maybe, just maybe it gives them a little comfort, to know that they are not alone. I hope when it's time for me, someone will also sit by my side.