On Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990 at 11:30 a.m Greta Lovisa Gustafsson died at the New York Hospital.
It seemed, at first, as if there might be hope. Her friends were in frantic touch with Jane Gunther - were the treatments doing anything?
“She’s magic, she’s just magic,” Gunther told them all. “She’s so beautiful.” Jane thought she looked transcendent, almost beatific. Gray Reisfield was with her constantly. She was in little pain, but when pneumonia set in, there was nothing more to be done.
Each year at winter’s end, all living creatures are filled with a deep longing for spring. At Easter, in Swedish folklore, the animals gather to watch the great crane dance and to think no more of struggling: Instead, both the winged and those who had no wings wanted to raise themselves eternally, lift themselves above the clouds, seek that which was hidden beyond them, leave the oppressive body that dragged them down to earth, and soar away toward the infinite.
- Selma Lagerlöf