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What People Say Before They Die
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ryandvm 8y agoI still think "Fuck that alligator" is my favorite: http://gawker.com/fuck-that-alligator-man-killed-seconds-after-mocking-1715887134 http://gawker.com/fuck-that-alligator-man-killed-seconds-aft...
- rad_gruchalski 8y agoI can see how easy would it be to misinterpret “No swimming alligators”.
- vatueil 8y agoGood point about the ambiguous language. Reminds me of: https://www.reddit.com/r/dontdeadopeninside/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dontdeadopeninside/ Though in this case people had tried to convince the victim not to swim, so it wasn't like he misread the sign.
- vatueil 8y agoBuzzFeed later published a more detailed and sympathetic account of this tragedy: https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/golianopoulos/fuck-that-gator https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/golianopoulos/fuck-that-gat...
- darkpuma 8y agoIt really steams me that they killed the gator. The gator didn't do anything wrong, and considering that it was the first lethal gator attack in the state in two centuries, the gator almost certainly did not represent a significant hazard to any other people, almost all of whom would be more respectful of it. Suggesting that there was something wrong with the gator, like it had a moral deficiency or something, is just absurd.
- olalonde 8y agoThe justification I've often heard has nothing to do with morality or vengeance. It's simply that animals that have killed humans tend to do it again because they now associate humans with prey. I don't know how accurate this is but it's definitely the rationale used for killing such animals.
- abetusk 8y agoFor those that want a list, Wikiquote has a page of "last words" [1]. [1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_words https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_words
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago"Thomas Jefferson survives."
- paulmd 8y agoNarrator: "He didn't."
- THE_PUN_STOPS 8y ago"Alex's death on 6 September 2007, at age 31, came as a surprise, as the average life span for a grey parrot in captivity is 45 years. His last words ("You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you") were the same words that he would say every night when Pepperberg left the lab." "The name Alex was an acronym for avian language experiment, or avian learning experiment." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)
- lurquer 8y agoI remember my Grandpa's last words on his deathbed: "Well, I'll see you'all later."
- LeftTurnSignal 8y agoThe 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.
- drdeadringer 8y agoI've had the same thought from time to time. I stopped expressing them to my parents; they don't share the points of view as your family, you, and myself appears to.
- thesagan 8y agoLast thing my grandpa said to me was, "I'll see you soon." It's actually comforting.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- starpilot 8y ago"What happens after I kick this bucket?"
- Simulacra 8y ago“ hold my beer and watch this”
- reaperducer 8y ago"I drank what?" — Socrates
- yakshaving_jgt 8y ago> Zagraj w Mozarta na moją pamiątkę, a ja cię usłyszę. — Frederic Chopin This one is my favourite.
- owlninja 8y agoTranslation: Play Mozart in memory of me—and I will hear you.
- acjohnson55 8y agoMine might just be "Play Chopin in memory of me".
- oconnor663 8y agoIronically those were Mozart's last words.
- JohnJamesRambo 8y ago"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.
- andrepd 8y agoTo 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 :)
- ianai 8y agoHis family suffered badly after he died. His wife and mother of his children died on the street begging for money. Really sullied my connection to his music.
- JohnJamesRambo 8y agoWhy does that change your connection to his music?
- ianai 8y agoHard to explain fully. I love Bach’s music, of course. Anytime I see the word “Bach” in a context outside music there’s that little disappointment that I’m not hearing his music. His last wife was 15-16 years younger than him. Apparently she was a singer herself. But she must have, instead, devoted her life to him and their children. After he died (see below), she and their daughters were left, it sounds like, with relatively nothing. So it’s twofold. For having contributed to the world what he did, Bach’s music is highly valuable. But in his time it sounds like he didn’t receive much wealth. Further, before I read about his life I figured his life must have been the kind to establish his family in a more stable place. From Wikipedia’s entry about his last wife: “After Bach's death in 1750, his sons came into conflict and moved on in separate directions, going to live with other family members. While Bach did everything to educate his sons, his daughters never went to school.[4] Anna Magdalena was left alone, with no financial support from family members, to care for herself and her two youngest daughters, plus her stepdaughter from Bach's first marriage.[4][6] Anna Magdalena became increasingly dependent upon charity and handouts from the city council, ultimately relying on public begging to survive. Probably her only child or stepchild who provided any support to her was her stepson Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, whose letters show he provided regular financial assistance.[7] She died on the street on February 27, 1760, with no money at all,[4] and was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave at Leipzig's Johanniskirche [de] (St. John's Church). The church was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II.” It’s all a stark contradiction to Bach’s music.
- cweagans 8y agoI 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".
- dominotw 8y agoClassic granpa move.
- W-Stool 8y ago"Rosebud".
- adamc 8y agoThe book is actually "Words at the Threshhold", not "on" the threshhold... https://www.amazon.com/Words-Threshold-What-Nearing-Death/dp/1608684601/ https://www.amazon.com/Words-Threshold-What-Nearing-Death/dp...
- gammateam 8y agoI 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.
- pugworthy 8y agoI’m curious if you’ve ever sat with a dying person.
- gammateam 8y agoYes, I have So logically the next thing you have to do is to question whether I’ve sat with enough and kept a spreadsheet to elevate my experience away from an anecdotal outlier
- ralusek 8y agoThat just depends on your definition of romantic. The idea of a whole life, the entirety of existence available to a consciousness being made to meet cosmic insignificance, is itself romantic and tragic. The words themselves have the capability to show any number of things, ranging from their desire to summarize their own life, to a banal statement that they couldn't possibly know was their last, to a display of terror or resistance, or a list of regrets, or a divulgence of soon-to-be-consequence-free dark secrets, or a last minute change to their will. It doesn't take some wishful thinking to associate meaning or interest to it, it's inherently compelling and drama-prone.
- mirimir 8y agoWilliam 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.”
- fatnoah 8y agoMy 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.
- jnellis 8y agoMy 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.
- rv-de 8y agowhat do think he meant by that?
- fatnoah 8y agoMy interpretation was that he was expressing amazement at the number of people that came to see him. Friends, relatives, co-workers from 15+ years ago, etc. It was the topic we were discussing at that moment. Of course, it may have been something else, too.
- aaron695 8y agoArticle about how most quoted last words are fake and are really a jumble of meaningless drug, pain and deterated brain produced words. People start quoting fake last words.
- martin1975 8y agoOr 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.
- sayno3 8y agosounds legit
- gnulinux 8y agoOr maybe one for each, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades.
- martin1975 8y agoWell.. it's either/or. Both can't be true.
- vntok 8y agoZeus, Poseidon and Hades are siblings. Of course both could be true.
- warent 8y agoWasn't Steve Jobs a Zen Buddhist?
- booleandilemma 8y agoClearly a reference to the 3 jewels of Buddhism then.
- dang 8y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18943481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18943481 and marked it off-topic.
- andrepd 8y agoThat's... grasping at straws.
- zw123456 8y agoMy 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.
- DisruptiveDave 8y agoClap, clap, clap. That is absolutely wonderful.
- xamuel 8y ago>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 This sort of thing is addressed in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16. An excerpt: "'Then I beg you, father,' he [a rich man in hell] said, 'send Lazarus [a beggar in heaven] to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them so they will not also end up in this place of torment.' But Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let your brothers listen to them.' 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone is sent to them from the dead, they will repent.' Then Abraham said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:27-31)
- JimBrimble35 8y agoI'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.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- fierro 8y agointerestingly, 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.html https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_executed_offenders.h...
- ilikehurdles 8y agoThanks for sharing this. It really really humanizes the people behind the crime.
- dralley 8y agoWow https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/rodriguezrosendolast.html https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/rodriguezrosend...
- Ice_cream_suit 8y agoThose were his words. These were his deeds : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosendo_Rodriguez https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosendo_Rodriguez
- 21717117 8y agoIt's remarkable how many people admit guilt in their last words. The only thing I find more remarkable is how many imply or outright say they were sentenced for crimes they didn't commit.
- Ice_cream_suit 8y ago"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-illumination-zen-poetry-death/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/07/02/books/black-...
- skilled 8y agoHere we are, Western mortals worrying about the last spoken word, while the Himalayan yogis exit their body consciously...
- ridgeguy 8y agoMy 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.
- Gatsky 8y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann 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.
- aaaaaaaaaab 8y agoWhat made you change your mind?
- acjohnson55 8y agoSo 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.
- mjfl 8y agoI'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.
- tonyedgecombe 8y agoSadly, you are unlikely to get much choice in the matter.
- mjfl 8y agoWhat I'm saying is that I'm against the alternative which is to prepare for death like it's this big day or something.
- walkingolof 8y agoI agree, or as Atticus put it ( or so it goes) “I hope to arrive to my death, late, in love, and a little drunk”
- jim_bailie 8y agoYes! I like the way you think.
- c3534l 8y agoBefore 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.
- tokyodude 8y agonot 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!"
- yodsanklai 8y agoBefore 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.
- lumberingjack 8y agocancer/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."
- spdustin 8y agoWhen 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.
- ca98am79 8y agoMy 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.