I don't know why poetry seems so appropriate, but here is one that was read at my mum's funeral.
She died after being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. It had spread to her bones and her liver. She was just beginning a very agressive course of chemotherapy and Herceptin - and facing up to the fact that this was just to prolong her life, not to cure her.
Sadly she contracted an infection after her very first treatment and died only 4 days later.
It was a sudden and, I suspect, a very traumatic and painful end - she died from complete organ failure. Sadly in intensive care and not with her family around her.
Here's the poem:
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am the song that will never end.
I am the love of family and friend.
I am the child who has come to rest
In the arms of the Father who knows him best.
When you see the sunset fair,
I am the scented evening air.
I am the joy of a task well done.
I am the glow of the setting sun.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!
Wilbur Skeels (1996)