A few years before my grandfather died, without knowing it was going to happen, he told me about how there were so many things he never got the chance to do - but that he felt like he got to do enough to be happy.
He was almost 90 when medical complications got the better of him.
“What are you doing with that hammer!?”
Not to me, but to my mum. When my dad died, he’d been ill with cancer for a few months, and in the final few days it spread to his brain, and he became essentially unable to communicate in any meaningful way.
However when it was clear we were in his final few minutes (his breathing made it obvious he was almost gone) my mum said to him that she loved him, and although he couldn’t form words, he managed to make sounds that, although not words, were clearly the correct syllables and emphasis for “I love you”. It was amazing, and meant so much.
That’s so cool. Thank you for sharing. <3
🙂
My mom had just married my stepdad and I was around 7 years old. I would have to go to his mom and dad’s house before school since my mom had just started working again. His dad was dying and on oxygen. He was pretty much bed ridden at that point. He called me into his room and asked me just to come in there to say hello whenever I came over. He didn’t last much longer after that, but he still wanted to see me even though he had barely known me.
That’s really sweet.
My grandmother told me that if she could offer me one piece of advice it would be to stop worrying about the world, stop worrying about the future. If your thoughts are always there, they’re never here and you just wake up one morning realizing how much time has disappeared.
She told me to just enjoy my life, every moment.
This really conflicts me, as i feel like im just living in the moment and letting life slip away.
Everything in moderation.
Except sometimes you have to just go wild, or you have an excess of moderation.
Well, yeah, I did say everything ;-)
Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun–Pink Floyd, Time
My mum acknowledged my mental illness would mean I would never succeed in life.
Not to get too personal here mate, but fuck that and fuck her. She’s dead, you’re still here, and I believe in you. You got this!
That sounds like a harsh thing to say, even if it’s their last day
Where’s the cheese?
She wanted cheese with her biscuits the night before she died. I think these might have been her last words to me, eleven years ago.
I fetched the cheese.
“Arf arf arf arf arf!” ~ My dog
I’ve sat through a lot of deaths but never really witnessed the dying moments up close aside from pets.
excessively trivial things
“This is my favourite Indian restaurant.” It has always been my favourite too. I think of John every time I go there. He was old, but passed away suddenly.
It’s weird how the strangest things like this stick with you.
My favorite part was when John finally revealed that he had left me his original mint-condition copy of Battletoads in his will.
Hold on tight together!
My gandad wrote this because he could not speak
“Never grow old”
My grandfather :’(
Not to me, but my grandma told grandpa they should take their t-shirts and go home. Not sure when she said it, either, but I sure do miss her.
Wished they hadn’t worked so much.
There’s a book which can be a hard read that you might appreciate. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
