♫ Singing this song blesses me. ♫
- [Voiceover] Death being like a song, takes place
over time.
There's a beginning to it, there's a culmination,
and then there's an ending.
I think it has the possibility of enhancing our lives
rather than taking something away from them.
My name is Kate Munger, I'm the founder of
The Threshold Choir.
We sing at the bedsides of people who are dying.
(singing in harmony)
I started the first choir in March of 2000.
Six months later, two more choirs, and today
there are 150 choirs around the world.
♫ May you be at peace. ♫
In 1990, I spent an afternoon taking care of
a friend of mine who was dying of HIV/AIDS.
He was comatose and agitated, and I didn't know
what to do.
So I started instinctively singing to him.
He started to calm and I started to calm.
I knew I'd discovered something ancient,
and that I wanted to bring back.
The songs that we bring to bedsides are mostly songs
that we've written.
They're short, they're sung very, very softly,
and the lyrics offer comfort, they offer serenity,
they offer simplicity and ease.
We will knock on the door and try to slip into the room
where the person is dying, as gently as a butterfly.
We've come to sing for you.
♫ May you be free from suffering. ♫
We often see a calming of the breath, sometimes
we'll see a toe tapping or a finger moving,
a smile, and then when we're done, slip out just as quietly.
Often we'll leave singing.
♫ You are not alone, I am here now. ♫
Many of the people we've sung for say that
their pain is gone, their pain is lessened,
that is a miracle to me.
(gentle piano music)