The final painting in the series is an allegory about the end of earthly life and the journey into the afterlife. The dangerous rapids from the previous painting have finally smoothed out into a vast, dark, and endless ocean, which represents eternity.
The voyager is now an old man with white hair, sitting peacefully in his battered, broken boat. The hourglass figure on the front of the ship has broken off, signaling that his time on Earth has officially run out. His guardian angel returns to his side, no longer watching from afar, but standing right next to him. She points up toward a brilliant path of divine light breaking through the pitch-black sky, where a line of angels descends to welcome the old man home. Cole wraps up his story by shifting from human struggle to peaceful triumph, completing the universal loop of human life.
