Lou Reed died happy, looking at trees as he did Tai Chi.

 

Lou Reed’s widow said he died while looking at the trees in his garden as he performed tai chi.

 

After doctors treating him for liver failure told him that nothing more could be done to save him, his wife took him to their home in East Hampton, New York, where he died on Sunday morning.

In a touching obituary she writes: “To our neighbours: What a beautiful fall! Everything shimmering and golden and all that incredible soft light. Water surrounding us. Lou and I have spent a lot of time here in the past few years, and even though we’re city people this is our spiritual home.

“Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it!

“Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air.”

Lou Reed had been studying martial arts since the 1980's. In 2002, he started studying Chen Style Tai Chi.