“Beautiful Day, Happy to Have Been Here.”
The New York Times today recaps a story that got shared quite a bit last week: Jane Lotter, who died after a long battle with endometrial cancer on July 18, elected to write her own obituary as she prepared to “[take] advantage of Washington state’s compassionate Death with Dignity Act.” The 60-year-old Seattle native wrote “in classic obituary style” for much of the piece, but there are also moments like this:
I met Bob Marts at the Central Tavern in Pioneer Square on November 22, 1975, which was the luckiest night of my life. We were married on April 7, 1984. Bobby M, I love you up to the sky. Thank you for all the laughter and the love, and for standing by me at the end. Tessa and Riley, I love you so much, and I’m so proud of you. I wish you such good things. May you, every day, connect with the brilliancy of your own spirit. And may you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they ARE the path.
From the Times story:
On July 18, the couple and their two children gathered in the parents’ bedroom. Ms. Lotter asked to keep in her contact lenses, in case a hummingbird came to the feeder Mr. Marts had hung outside their window.
The last song she heard before pouring powdered barbiturates, provided by hospice officials, into a glass of grape juice was George Gershwin’s “Lullaby.” Then she hugged and kissed them all goodbye, swallowed the drink and, within minutes, lapsed into a coma and died.
Lotter signed off her own obituary with the line, “Beautiful day, happy to have been here”; her family distributed buttons with the phrase at her funeral on Sunday.