for past folly, unkindness, misconduct, etc. as death. It removes further anxiety regarding continued ill behavior and allows loving family & friends to forget all but the most positive featurs of the dear departed.

JA says so herself in Emma:
"Goldsmith tells us, that when lovely woman stoops to folly, she has nothing to do but to die; and when she stoops to be disagreeable, it is equally to be recommended as a clearer of ill-fame. Mrs. Churchill, after being disliked at least twenty-five years, was now spoken of with compassionate allowances." (EMMA chapter 45)(please forgive the digression into another novel but I hoped it might be allowed as JA says it best & the subject is so similar)