Under the Willow by C.L. Carner

Death is a funny thing. Right before it happens, some say your life will flash before your eyes. Every moment lived, mistakes made, good deeds and bad replay in an instant as if the mind is searching for a precedent, a similar situation of which you came out on top—survived. That was not the case for me. Maybe because I went out on my own terms; one final redeeming act to set right the mess I had made of my life. Instead of showing me what was, death gave me a vision of what could have been.