I was not there, so I can only take my family members' words for it, but a week before my mom died and after she had been admitted to Hospice, she was radiant. She just looked, according to my uncle, truly beautiful. Not at all sick, not at all tired, not at all haggard as you might expect anyone whose body was preparing to exit to look. Her eyes, which had always been green, turned a piercing shade of light blue. When I saw them for the first time a few days before she passed away, I could not look away, even though they shocked me.

My uncle suggested, and I am inclined to believe him, that the transformation was one of her turning into her transcendental, divine self before passing away. I don't think she knew about the change in her eye color; we certainly didn't talk about it. But my mom had always been quite proud of her excellent eyesight and had planned to donate her corneas after death. They were harvested and sent off wherever those things go. I went about life thinking how great it would be for someone to share in my mom's gift of sight.

But maybe in the process of turning into her divine self, something went wrong with her eyesight. Maybe that's what caused the change. I don't know. All I know is that the next time I was home, there was a letter saying that Mom's corneas were not able to be used after all. I was left thinking that maybe it was a fair tradeoff for the radiance in those few days.