It was as simple as flipping a switch.
The respirator stopped.
A few gasps and the room became uncomfortably quiet.
No more labored mechanical breathing.

The nursing staff hovers on the edges of the room as family members absorb the unexplainable moment in which the person which had shared conversations and coffee has been transported into another unseen dimension.

No words can describe the sudden awareness of final separation.

When we know the inevitable is coming,
when we look in the eyes of the person we know will soon lay still and cold,
we the living move to a place of our own.

We take refuge in a distant place to soften our loss.
We begin to pull back even before they have left.
And they know it.
Who are we kidding.

It takes a brave person to remain ever present in the face of death.
Where do WE go?
We, who are alive?
They have the benefit of knowing what we are so afraid of facing,
our mortality is our biggest fear.