Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Throughout the story, Cameron has several different versions of how he pictures the afterlife. One particular set of images, however, represents heaven from someone else's perspective. While he's still conscious in the hospital, Cameron meets Mrs. Morae, another patient who wanders into his room. In a seemingly random way she describes how she wants to die:
"So how are you supposed to die?"
Her eyes take on a faraway sheen. "In a house by the sea in an upstairs bedroom. It's late spring, and the open window lets in the smell of lily of the valley. And there's a garden outside. It's decorated with paper lanterns, and the children, the children chase after fireflies while their parents laugh and talk as if they have all the time in the world. In a house by the sea, it will end, and I will slip from this life as if it were no more than a sweater grown too large and threadbare with years, something no longer needed. That is how it should be. Not here. Never here." She fixes me with her gaze. "I don't think you should die before you're ready. Until you've wrung out every last bit of living you can." (13.76)
Sounds like heaven, doesn't it? But it's not Cameron's heaven; it's Mrs. Morae's. So although she invites him to join her there in her house by the sea on several occasions, Cameron finds reasons to turn her down because he's not ready for the great beyond… yet.