When The Time Is Close

When her time was near,
she took her hands from beneath the covers.
Look, she said. Look at these.
They were pale pink and skeletal.
Let me go, she said, and the pain stole across her face.
This is the challenge.
At the end.
You want to go because the pain is too fierce.
But you are afraid to let go.
We do not know what faces us.
A light?
Purgatory, where we are cast in to fire,
or denied the love of God.
Some say there is nothing.
This woman knew.
She wanted to go.
Not to leave us but to rejoin another.
And that has a powerful pull.
All you must do is want to go,
to extend your hand and whisper:
I am ready.
This is my time.