It’s not a place many people choose to be buried — but it was perfect for him

Noah Creshevsky was an egalitarian who believed in humility in death.

Courtesy of David Sachs

This is the second story in The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island series from Radio Diaries. You can listen to the next installment on All Things Considered next Monday, and read and listen to previous stories in the series here.

When Noah Creshevsky found out he had bladder cancer in 2020, he decided not to have surgery. He was 75 and didn’t want to live with an artificial bladder.

“He thought it was the beginning of a slope and he didn’t want to go down it,” says Creshevsky’s husband, David Sachs. “I remember his surgeon was stunned because no one had ever declined [treatment]. Everyone wants to grapple for every minute of life.”

So Creshevsky knew he was going to die. But he didn’t know if it would be “three more weeks, three more months, three more hours,” says Sachs. “We didn’t know.”

Sachs and Creshevsky had been living together for 42 years. They found the same movies funny, they read the same books. “It was a remarkably satisfying relationship,” Sachs says. “So I was lucky.”

David Sachs in 2023.

Courtesy of David Sachs

Sachs was a teacher and book editor. Creshevsky was an experimental electronic composer. He called his music “hyperrealism.” He was also a beloved teacher at Brooklyn College.

Early in his career, Creshevsky had studied composition with some of the most prominent figures in modern music, including conductor Nadia Boulanger. He originally…