Final Blog Post, by Virginia Ironside:

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My book - No! I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub - is not only about the birth of my beloved grandson (there are now two grandsons, which is even better), but also about death. I don't know about anyone else, but I've seen, in my life, about five people die, been with them in the run-up to their deaths and, in some instances, actually been with them at the moment of death. It's a moving moment, and very salutary because, of course, one day we're all going to be in the same position.

You start to be able to tell, just by looking at their faces, whether they're going to last for months, weeks, or days. And so often it's extraordinary, when they actually do die, of almost seeing their soul leave their body. There's no big drama about it, no noise or bellowing of trumpets. No. One minute they're there, the next minute they're gone - and their moment of leaving is so light and quiet, just as if a chiffon scarf were removed from them and tossed, fluttering, into the air.

I'm glad to say that I've never seen anyone go, as Dylan Thomas exhorted, in a fury.

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

That's what he suggested we do at the end. But everyone I've known has gone with a tremendous sense of peace. My mother held my hand and, when I said I'd arranged with the doctor that she be given an extra-big injection of morphine, replied "Thank you, darling." Another, dying in a hospice, asked each of her friends to visit her over a period of days, in order to say goodbye to them and to thank them for being such a big part of her life, and meaning so much to her. Another told me that he just felt peace. "As each of my faculties goes," he said, "as I get weaker and weaker, it's extraordinary but I just accept it. It's a most peculiar feeling."

I hope that when I go eventually I shall faced death with the same wonderful serenity as my friends. And on that sombre note, and at the risk of sounding like some frightfully serious old cleric, I shall sign my blog off with all best wishes, and hope that you will have lots of laughs and giggles before you reach such a moment. But I also hope that, like my friends, when the day comes, you won't be raging, but will feel happy, tranquil, and accepting - Virginia

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Virginia Ironside, No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club, novel, old age, humor, book club, retirement, divorce, Penguin Books, books