fascinating article: What People Actually Say When They Die

[Grasswire2]

It breaks my heart to read this part:

“A nurse from the hospice told me that the last words of dying men often resembled each other,” wrote Hajo Schumacher in a September essay in Der Spiegel. “Almost everyone is calling for ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mama’ with the last breath.”

..........because I likely won't be there when my offspring are dying.

[link:https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-people-actually-say-before-they-die?utm_source=pocket-newtab|

[qazplm135]

1. Mine will be

The Hare Krishna's were right.

[smirkymonkey]

2. I hope mine will be "I outlived that bastard Trump!"

There is a good chance since I am much younger than he is, but I honestly believe that he and the stress he causes is going to send me to an earlier death.

[Codeine]

3. Bosco!! nt

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Your ATM code... ?

[Codeine]

12. . . .

[Norbert]

4. Mine: I told you I was sick.

That was actually on someone's head stone.

[tblue37]

11. A hypochondriac's, or so the story goes. nt

[Different Drummer]

5. Mine: "Rosebud!"

DD

[GulfCoast66]

6. As in 'Momma I'm coming home'.

If not on an iPhone an Ozzy Osborne Clip would be posted!

[Laffy Kat]

7. That was an interesting article.

I am sending it to my sister. She somehow ended up at the bedside of both parents and our aunt at death. The two of us were both at our aunt's bedside when she died. We talk about the dying process a lot, mostly in a clinical and curious way.

[Grasswire2]

8. I thought so too...

....and may look for the book mentioned in it.

[Laffy Kat]

13. Me, too.

You may also find "How We Die" by Sherwin Nuland an interesting read. I re-read it a couple of years ago. It sounds morbid but it's not. In a way, it was comforting and reassuring, especially the chapters on trauma.

I have to avoid picking up "The Atlantic" on magazine racks because I will always end up buying it.

[3catwoman3]

10. There is so much we don't know.

This sounds like it will be well worth reading.

[bdjhawk]

14. My late father was a WWII veteran

And I talk to many guys still living who served with him and also read a lot about WWII. One story that is consistent among their stories from medics, chaplains and soldiers who were with the mortally wounded is that those wounded soldiers, as they lay dying on the battlefields of Europe, cried out for their mothers.

[Grasswire2]

17. See, that's what breaks my heart.

My offspring will call for their mother, but I'll be already gone.

[raccoon]

19. In the book LAST LETTERS FROM STALINGRAD, one letter

From a German soldier there said dying men called out for their mothers, not for “der fuehrer”.

Imagine that.

[lostnfound]

15. It is the natural order for our children to outlive us.

Maybe the dying “see” their mothers as what they expect to see next. It makes them less afraid.

It is a privilege to be present for the natural death of one’s parent if a long life is achieved. It’s the least we can do for them.

[keithbvadu2]

16. 'The gold is buried under........'

'The gold is buried under........'

[edbermac]

18. "Well, this sucks."

[Roland99]

20. My god. It's full of stars.

[Hortensis]

21. Suspect the "almost everyone" is an overstatement by a

chatting nurse filtered through a journalist. And is this mostly a "men" thing? In any case, it seems likely to be common.

I can think of worse things for my children to have in their last thoughts, strange as it might sound to their grandchildren who never knew me or "grandpa" as a child. Wonderful that long-gone mothers could still be there for children who need their comfort.

[superpatriotman]

22. What about those who don't particularly like their mothers?

Who do they call for?