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        In a written exerpt from a letter about the cremation of his mother, George Bernard Shaw recalls her "passage" with humor and understanding. The dark humor associated with the horrid details of disposing of his mother's physical body are eventually reconciled with an understanding that her spirit lives on. He imagines how she would find humor in the bizarre event of her own cremation. The quality of humor unites Shaw and his mother in a …

…of the relationship the narrator had with his mother is clarified by their shared sense of humor. The reader also feels at this point that their relationship will survive by humor in memory thereby overcoming the morbid aspects of death. The narrator has relived the entire experience by retelling it, but he has also reached a new level knowing his memories will survive and his mother's spirit will live on in a new shared understanding.