Why are some people happy when they are dying?

Why are some people happy when they are dying? 
StudyFinds; by The Conversation, Mattias Tranberg, Lund University; 7/18/24
Simon Boas, who wrote a candid account of living with cancer, passed away on July 15 at the age of 47. In a recent BBC interview, the former aid worker told the reporter: “My pain is under control and I’m terribly happy – it sounds weird to say, but I’m as happy as I’ve ever been in my life.” It may seem odd that a person could be happy as the end draws near, but in my experience as a clinical psychologist working with people at the end of their lives, it’s not that uncommon. There is quite a lot of research suggesting that fear of death is at the unconscious center of being human. William James, an American philosopher, called the knowledge that we must die “the worm at the core” of the human condition. But a study in Psychological Science shows that people nearing death use more positive language to describe their experience than those who just imagine death. This suggests that the experience of dying is more pleasant – or, at least, less unpleasant – than we might picture it.
Editor's Note: Click here for the study, Goranson, A., Ritter, R. S., Waytz, A., Norton, M. I., & Gray, K. (2017). Dying Is Unexpectedly Positive. Psychological Science, 28(7), 988–999. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44577785.