Embracing the Culture of Death?

Via Drudge, this epilogue to Hunter Thompson's suicide seems to illustrate the perverse celebration some have toward death; a violent death at that. Instead of seeing his suicide as a tragic termination of precious life, his wife, family and some friends see it as a joyous occasion and his widow is particularly pleased that he chose the right weapon so as to not make a bigger mess.

To the "unenlightened," it's difficult to grasp this reaction to a loved one's violently self-imposed death. It's understandable how one would want to minimize the trauma by minimizing the act, but that doesn't seem to be what's going on here. I could be reading it all wrong, but this incident seems to go hand in hand with the culture of death extant in this post-modern age of deconstructionism.