Croaked

"Croaked" has been thought to refer to the sound of the dying person's last ditch efforts to breathe. It is a dysphemism rather than a euphemism. read about the difference here. 

Just after my eighteenth birthday, I was cruising through Woolworth’s Five and Dime store with my friend Rosaleen when the top button of my kilt popped off.  Using my left hand to keep the two flaps of fabric together, Rosie and I searched the sewing section looking for safety pins. While she kept watch, I unhooked one of the large size pins from its pack. It took a while because I was trying to keep my skirt up at the same time. I looked up to see a red faced store clerk barreling toward us. Pointing her finger in my face she snarled, “What would you mother say if she knew you were stealing from us?

“I don’t know, I stammered. She just croaked.” Looking horrified, the clerk drew back, opened and closed her mouth without speaking and walked away. Why did I say it that way? My mother had died only a few weeks before. Her death wasn't real to me yet and I couldn't bear it to be. I didn't have a clue how to be in the world without her.

Thus was my introduction to euphemisms for dying, an interest which surfaced many years later as the theme of this ongoing monotype series, Biting the Dust.