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The death of a star as seen through the Hubble Space Telescope was an inexplicably life affirming spectacle. I try to catch the Astronomy Picture of the Day and when I saw the Astrophotograph that inspired this piece, I had just experienced the death of my favorite Uncle James Alexander Ward. (I even named my first son after him). The chief architect for Duke endowment, he was responsible for many innovative designs for churches and Duke stone additions to the campus. How can I describe how funny, forgiving —and his drawings—so inspirational to me!!!. And his death was just as singularly beautiful and inspirational. He asked my cousin Beth (who teaches voice at Duke) to come to the hospital and sing as he said “anything in your voice”. Uncle Jim was very lucid, his eyes were open and he was looking at the ceiling. Then he began to speak and Beth wrote down what he said. Here are a few of the things that he said:

“I’m seeing a re-enactment of Jesus’ birth. Little children putting him in the cradle. There’s a big crowd up there. Thankful makes me feel so holy and thankful. Oh Boy! They’re bringing the baby out. They’re going on up. Angels appearing. Bright angels!, Glorious Angels, oh boy! The singers on high, a beautiful baby. O what a glorious sight. Can you hear music? Softly softly
Hallelujah! How did they get all those people up on the stage? They have angels all the way across there
I called my Dad right after Uncle Jim died. A retired Methodist Minister, he said he’d experienced this before and with tears in his voice he said and this is what I call A BEAUTIFUL Death

Exhibited at:
Artist as Quiltmaker, Oberlin OH
AQS Daytona Beach FL
MAQF Hampton VA, won Best Interpretation of Theme