Deathbed Choirs

by Carrie H. Ryan

“When you came to our church and sang, I had more energy than I have had in many months. When you and the choir sang to my mom, I felt your singing was able to hold a space open that we all fear. That ‘space’ could be death or just the struggle of sickness, and when it’s held open like that, we are less alone in it…When you sang, your voices had a kind of wisdom of being in dark places or feared places … My mom told me the feeling overwhelmed her, while you were all singing to her, of not being afraid to die.”