Rachmaninoff's health rapidly declined in the last week of March 1943. He was turned off by food, had constant pain in his arms and sides, and found it increasingly difficult to breathe. On 26 March, the composer lost consciousness and he died two days later, four days before his seventieth birthday. A message from several Moscow composers with greetings had arrived too late for Rachmaninoff to read it. His funeral took place at the Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church on Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake. In his will, Rachmaninoff wished to be buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, the same as Scriabin, Taneyev, and Chekhov, but his American citizenship could not see the request through. Instead, he was interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York on 1 June.