A letter from a palliative care doctor to the late David Bowie has resonated with many after David’s son, Duncan Jones, retweeted it from the Marie Curie Twitter account.
A thank you letter to David Bowie from a palliative care doctor. https://t.co/ibFYRY8wc1 – thanks for sharing @DrMarkTaubert
— Marie Curie (@mariecurieuk) January 17, 2016
The letter, written by Dr Mark Taubert, commends David for helping and inspiring people who are terminally ill.
He said: “I’m a palliative care doctor, and what you have done in the time surrounding your death has had a profound effect on me and many people I work with”.
Taubert continued: “So back to the conversation I had with the lady who had recently received the news that she had advanced cancer that had spread, and that she would probably not live much longer than a year or so.
“She talked about you and loved your music, but for some reason was not impressed by your Ziggy Stardust outfit (she was not sure whether you were a boy or a girl).
“She too, had memories of places and events for which you provided an idiosyncratic soundtrack. And then we talked about a good death, the dying moments and what these typically look like”.
Taubert ended the letter with a touching thank-you to the music icon: “We both wondered who may have been around you when you took your last breath and whether anyone was holding your hand.
“I believe this was an aspect of the vision she had of her own dying moments that was of utmost importance to her, and you gave her a way of expressing this most personal longing to me, a relative stranger.
“Thank you”.
Read the letter in full here.
