Sorry for rambling a bit here, Dandello. I'm not religious, and I don't really believe that we are going anywhere except into the ground when we have died - not that I can't be totally wrong about that, of course....

Anyway. Personally I don't believe that we are going anywhere after we have died, but I don't doubt for a moment that sometimes you can help people to die a happier death. I'm certain that sometimes, at least, the things you do can make the dying person feel that he or she is off to a better place. You really can help some of them that way. Of course, if there is a God and the dying person is worthy in the eyes of this God, then the person is going to heaven no matter what you do, or don't do. Even so, you can make a difference when it comes to helping the dying person meet his own death.

When my grandfather was almost 95 years old and had been a widower for eight years, he had had it up to here with life. He wanted to die. He had stopped eating and drinking. But now that death was approaching, he was scared. Several members of his family were gathered around him, and he cried out to us, "Hold me! Hold my hand!" We held his hand, we stroked his cheek, we spoke soothingly to him, but it seemed as if he couldn't feel it when we touched him. And he kept crying out in anguish.

My grandfather was a very religious man. Never in his life had he doubted that good people go to heaven when they die. But I guess that now, when he could feel death approaching, he couldn't feel heaven getting closer. I'm sure he wasn't sensing the presence of his beloved, dead wife. And he was so scared.

Suddenly, one of us started singing. Soon we were all singing my grandfather's favorite hymns. The change in my grandfather was amazing. He relaxed. He looked peaceful. And after only a few minutes, he stopped breathing altogether. Personally, I'm always going to think that he relaxed and he stopped fighting death because he believed he could hear the angels singing to him. He hadn't been able to feel heaven approaching, but our song made him feel that heaven was opening its portals for him.

The reason for my long rambling, Dandello, is just that I wanted to say that the scene where Superman took Bobby flying, and Bobby died in his arms, was outstandingly beautiful. The poor boy was clearly going to die anyway, and he could never have died a happier death.

As a non-religious person I almost never like sermons, but I often like churches. Churches, particularly old churches, are silently reverberating with the hopes and dreams of so many people, many of them long gone. In the church, their dreams remain, echoing from the walls. This majestic building was where they went to express their dreams. And when you sit in such an old church, and hear beautiful music being played or sung, you can find peace inside yourself, somehow tapping into the dreams of so many people before you.

So I thought it was a very good thing that Lois and Clark went to that church together, after Bobby had died and Clark was hurting so.

I just wanted to say that your story is beautiful, Dandello, and in spite of its religious content, it appeals strongly to a non-religious person as myself.

Ann