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My father's last word was "Wow!". He was at the end stage of esophageal cancer at the age of 46. He fought until about a week before his passing and made the decision that he did all he could and try to go with some grace. By the point the pain was constant and unbearable, even oxycontin wasn't getting the job done. As a family, we said our goodbyes, and said everything that needed to be said.
Over the course of the next few days, people from his life came from near and far to visit him in the hospital. After about 5 days, the flow petered out. The night he passed, he was in and out of lucidity, and in a clear moment we talked about all of the people that came to see him. He was clearly impressed and humble. At the end of the conversation, he exclaimed "Wow!" in a voice that was barely a whisper and then closed his eyes. Several hours later, hid body finally succumbed to the cancer and he exhaled his last breath.
My father had the same condition, died at 51, in a bed in the living room. Because this type of cancer has a near 100% mortality rate, after he was diagnosed, his next birthday party was held in an convention hall and I showed up late because of work, amazed at a turnout of hundreds of people that I was floored; it was standing room only.
The final decline took two weeks, and during that time so many people came to visit that it was almost the opposite of 'Wow', he was trying to stay alive to not disappoint. One morning when we awoke he had slipped into coma but it was later clear to me he was still listening. He died a few feet away from me while I did evening dishes and his wife was saying to him "It's okay, you don't have to hang on anymore." And so he left.
Thanks for sharing your story - I'm very sorry for your loss.
>"[his] body finally succumbed to the cancer"
I've heard usually at that point (when the patient is ready) they just up the painkiller dose to the point it stops their breathing or heart.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/05/doctors-s...
I read it somewhere, when Steve Jobs died he said “oh wow, oh wow, oh wow”.
what do think he meant by that?
My mother-in-law died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).
When she passed, my wife, her sister and her husband, and my mother-in-law's ex-husband were with her. I was stroking her hair because I wanted the last thing she felt to be a human touch.
At one moment, she said quite clearly, "I'm ready to get on the train". Not a second or two later, we heard the train whistle (Palo Alto) as it passed the stop near her home. And then she stopped breathing.
Coincidence, of course, but nonetheless lovely.
"Don't cry for me, for I go where music is born."
Who: Johann Sebastian Bach, Baroque composer.
Now that is how you go out in style.
To put in context
"All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul."
Bach believed that all music, secular as well as sacred, had to be inspired by god or be written for his glory. Puts his last words into context :)
Johann Sebastian Bach most probably never said these words.
Of course, there is no absolute recording of the death of Bach, so no certitude. The witnesses were few, and the Cantor was not very famous at this time, so there was no reason for anyone to produce a detailed account of the episode. Even a single account by a family member would not prove much. So when JS Bach's popularity started to grew, a century later, there was room for imagination. There are many apocryphal texts around Bach, including the Little Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach… written in the 1920s.
Jesus of Nazareth's final quote shows a similar situation. He became much more famous after his death, and most of the texts we have about him were written decades later. Yet the Gospel all describe the scene of his death. So what were his last words? It depends on the Gospel. There are 3 very different accounts, with only Mark and Matthew agreeing.
I remember my Grandpa's last words on his deathbed: "Well, I'll see you'all later."
The last thing I gave my Grandpa was a Get Well Soon card, at his funeral.
/everyone had a good laugh, he would have loved it.
Last thing my grandpa said to me was, "I'll see you soon."
It's actually comforting.
I'll never forget my grandfather's last words (word really). Seconds before he passed, he mustered up enough energy to call out "NO" quite loudly. Then he was gone. I still find his last expression somewhat haunting, although I suspect that the whole "dying" thing hadn't become real to him until that very last moment when he knew it was inevitable.
I saw my grandpa the night before he passed. I asked him if he wanted my wife and I to stay or go and let him sleep. His last words to me were "Just let me sleep".
Classic granpa move.
"On a winter morning in 1360, Zen master Kozan Ichikyo gathered together his pupils. Kozan, 77, told them that, upon his death, they should bury his body, perform no ceremony and hold no services in his memory. Sitting in the traditional Zen posture, he then wrote the following:
Empty-handed I entered the world Barefoot I leave it. My coming, my going — Two simple happenings That got entangled.
After he finished, Kozan gently put down his brush, and then died. He was still sitting upright.
" https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/07/02/books/black-...
Here we are, Western mortals worrying about the last spoken word, while the Himalayan yogis exit their body consciously...
I'm a little bit different - I don't want to prepare for death. I want to die at my desk, completely unconscious of, unready for and ultimately, unburdened by my own mortality. There's nothing you can do about it anyways, and waiting to die is boring and miserable. I don't want to give death any respect, I want to be inconvenienced by it, interrupted by it.
I agree, or as Atticus put it ( or so it goes)
“I hope to arrive to my death, late, in love, and a little drunk”
Sadly, you are unlikely to get much choice in the matter.
Yes! I like the way you think.
I still think "Fuck that alligator" is my favorite:
http://gawker.com/fuck-that-alligator-man-killed-seconds-aft...
BuzzFeed later published a more detailed and sympathetic account of this tragedy: https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/golianopoulos/fuck-that-gat...
I can see how easy would it be to misinterpret “No swimming alligators”.
interestingly, Texas keeps a record of the last statements made by death row inmates uttered before execution. I'm not sure if other states do this.
https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_executed_offenders.h...
So uncomfortable to read. We all like to pretend that death's not a thing until it becomes unavoidable. I think the mentality of a human being is built to be deeply anxious of the possibility of changes in circumstance, yet adaptable when possibilities become certainty. Everyone I know who has faced life-altering circumstances eventually adopts a new life. I suppose those terminal are the same. A lot of shit probably just doesn't matter anymore, because it can't.
My Mom was in hospice care for about the last year of her life. She was religious and I am not, I am an Atheist. We talked about that toward the end. We came up with a very unique "pass phrase" and she agreed that if she got "up there" she would try to get it to me. That was 10 years ago, still nothing.
But I thought it was interesting that part of the way I think she dealt with it was writing her Eulogy. She had been the organist at her church for many years until she became too ill to continue. She had a friendly little rivalry with her much younger replacement playing little practical jokes on her like leaving a funny cartoon in the hymn book to "throw her off timing", silly fun things like that.
My Mom had been placing this idea with the church goers for some time, claiming that our family had Native American Heritage (we do not).
When I attended her funeral, many members of the church mentioned this and my sister and I just assumed maybe she was confused towards the end. But she was not confused at all. It was all part of an elaborate, one last practical joke from the grave.
She had convinced the church to allow the organist to perform a "Native American Chant" in her honor. The Chant was "O-what-ajerkiam" over and over but in native sounding phonology she had devised. She had even provided the poor unsuspecting organist an "official native American drum". (this whole thing shamelessly stolen from Mel Brooks). The ruse went off perfectly and my sister and I were cracking up, Mel Brooks was her favorite.
I hope I have a great sense of humor like my Mom at the end like that. It was her completely. And everyone got a huge kick out of it afterwards including the organist who was in tears of laughter after she realized she had been had one last time.
Before my mother died (from lung cancer), she was just extremely anxious and miserable. Don't expect some kind of revelation or great thought about the meaning of life when people die. It's just horrible for everybody involved.
My grandfather was saying "help!" through an oxygen mask on his face for several days before he died. I didn't know how to respond because there wasn't anything we could do. He struggled like this, in pain, but at the very end he had an expression of complete joy and peace that was really moving to me. I was very close with my grandfather and felt I could understand what he was feeling without any words. My interpretation is that he experienced some type of complete acceptance of death and/or awareness of something beyond death. It was really beautiful and comforting to see, especially after watching him struggle for days prior to this.
For those that want a list, Wikiquote has a page of "last words" [1].
Before Einstein died he called his live-in nurse over to hear his last words. Unfortunately she didn't speak German. So we don't know if he uttered a breakthrough physics formula or just complimented her on a nice set of cans.
Anyway, fascinating article even though we all seem to want to talk about famous last words instead.
> Zagraj w Mozarta na moją pamiątkę, a ja cię usłyszę.
— Frederic Chopin
This one is my favourite.
The book is actually "Words at the Threshhold", not "on" the threshhold... https://www.amazon.com/Words-Threshold-What-Nearing-Death/dp...
not sure this is relevant but my grandmother's last words to me...
she was the always happy type of person. super socialite knows everyone and everyone loves her always a kind word for everyone.
The last time I saw her was the only time I ever heard her have a negative attitude about anything.
She said "getting old sucks!"
William S. Burroughs: "Hurry up, please. It's time."
And OK, those weren't his last words. They were the last words in his last book, The Western Lands. Maybe they were more about being ready for death.
His final journal entries were published as Last Words: The Final Journals. My favorite:
> Here I sit with my three old cats, getting closer to eternity all the time, on a twine chair—(Van Gogh) and me too—and it gets very depressing. What can I do? I had high hopes. We all did. Remember just outside the Tangier Consulate: “Have you met the Skipper yet?” Later I did. And now no skipping, no transport anywhere, except to a cut-rate mortuary. Where were you when I wasn’t there? “Hound of Hell!!” screamed the Pop Star, and kicked the fink dog in the nuts. “Only decent thing I done.” “Forget the whole thing. I have.” Great gasp at this point. How much time? have I left? Not much it seems.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann
The section about his death is surprising. I was an atheist at the time I first encountered the story.
When I was a child, my family and I drove from Florida to New York to say goodbye to my dying grandfather, wasting away from cancer. Ours was the only group now already in New York. He was unconscious for the first 24 hours we were there.
The day after we got there, he woke up. He wasn’t able to see, and he asked my grandmother, “is everyone here, Mother?”
“Yes, George, they are.”
“So I can go now?”
Through tears, she said, “yes, you can go now.”
He took one more breath.
cancer/bleeding out/religious martyr
Grandma "I can feel his warm light on my body!"
cancer/coma Grandpa "I am sorry for all the things I did (as a Nazi)we where just fighting for our rights and lives."
cancer/coma Grandpa 2 "Y'all talk to much." joking
cancer/coma Cousin 1 "I fought as long as I can don't cry it's all cool"
sleeping pills/instant Cousin 2 "Fuck this world and fuck you're gods" heard over the internet
old age 102/stopped breathing Great grandma "(I have seen a lot of stuff) I'll tell you more tomorrow right now I'm tired."
"I drank what?" — Socrates
"What happens after I kick this bucket?"
Or maybe he saw the truth about God. Steve Jobs said "oh wow, oh wow, oh wow" too. Could be one for each, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
“ hold my beer and watch this”
"Rosebud".
I like how this article and research de-romanticizes dying words.
There is nothing romantic about it, just incoherence that can only sometimes be applied out of context to conform to a blissful end.