"As a young girl, I’d stand on my tiptoes, craning my neck to watch her sweep cerulean eye shadow across lids and smear foundation on sunken cheeks. While my high school friends resorted to secondhand eye shadow instruction from the pages of Teen magazine, I learned by watching my mom transform the face of a corpse with her skilled makeup application. My mother’s gentle and methodical lipstick application entranced me. Back and forth. Slowly outlining the cupid’s bow of a mouth. Delicately tracing of the arch in a feathery eyebrow. Until, wondrously, the corpse’s vacant mask appeared serenely lifelike.

With her artistry complete, no one could spot the thin line of super glue keeping the embalmed lips from springing open, or the plastic eye caps that gave the appearance of eyeballs peacefully resting in sockets.

As I grew older, I pondered their last moments before this transition. What was the final word they spoke? Who received their last hug? What were they thinking when they realized their mortal roller-coaster ride was coming to a full and complete stop?"

Lara Salyer is a family physician and author of Right Brain Rescue: One physician’s journey from burnout to bliss reveals the creative muse in all of us. (https://amzn.to/3bw5XiQ)

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "One physician’s journey from burnout to bliss reveals the creative muse in all of us." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/10/one-physicians-journey-from-burnout-to-bliss-reveals-the-creative-muse-in-all-of-us.html)