What will your last words be? "I love you" seems like a given, but what if you have something more to say...like an important secret that you just need to let out before it's too late? The following stories detail the shocking revelations that were made from the deathbed, and needless to say, they definitely stirred up some drama in the lives of their unsuspecting loved ones:
1. Everything is Better With Bacon
A co-worker of mine has it in his will that before he is cremated, he wants to be wrapped in bacon. He has no family and a lot of money and this dude really loves bacon. He said it's going to cost somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500 to be cremated in bacon, but it’s totally worth it to him.
2. Overlooked
The wife of my acquaintance got covid and she was really sick. Almost all the doctors told them that she wouldn't make it, so she finally revealed her darkest secret. She confessed that she had been cheating on him for about ten years with one close friend of his and that maybe their last child isn't his but his friend's. The lady survived and that poor stupid sucker kept his marriage as if nothing had happened.
3. Great Ride
I did a few pro bono wills. This big guy asked me to give everything back to the community because he had no living immediate family. No problem. Then he told me his one exception: his Vietnam-era motorcycle. He said it was the first thing he bought after getting home from service, and he wanted to be buried with it, literally on it and in a riding position. I helped him set aside the funds necessary to do it. Dude was awesome!
4. Get A Room!
My mother worked as a nurse in the biggest hospital in Copenhagen. A man is terminally ill with cancer, has his wife, children and entire family next to him. He decides before he dies that he was gonna phone the girl he was cheating with on his wife, to meet up at the hospital when the entire family was there. My mother had to move the entire family into another room when she showed up, because of the massive shouting and hysteria.
5. It’s All in the Cards
My law professor told me about a client who left his three sons and grandsons his extensive baseball card collection. It seemed normal when my professor first heard of it; but then, he was handed a handwritten chart that had several hundred cards listed in one column, with the name of the recipient and why that person was getting the card in two more columns. "I leave this pitcher to Bobby because Bobby can't throw."
6. Neighbor's Daughter
My uncle had been in a car accident. It was bad. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, he dropped a bombshell. He said "Tell my wife that Wendy is my daughter and I love her." He expired a few minutes later because of internal bleeding. Wendy was the neighbors' then 5-year-old child. That caused a huge storm, I can tell you.
7. Like a Carrot on a Stick
My mom only works for crazy rich people. The worst will she ever told me about was this old guy who was close to 90. He wanted it so that when he passed, all of his millions would go into a trust for his kids. The catch was that his kids would never actually be able to touch it; they would only be allowed to collect the interest it generated. But it gets even worse.
He had my mom set him up with a group of accountants who will manage the trust, and he specifically arranged a plan with them to manage the account in such a way that their yearly billing will almost exactly match the interest to be made. So, when he dies, his kids will inherit millions but will only be able to spend like 35 dollars a year from it—35 dollars that the kids have to split between them!
8. Live Life To The Fullest
I had an accident and ended up with a concussion and emergency spinal surgery. Once I got to the hospital, the surgeon quickly went through all the things that could go wrong so I was aware. He said something like, "and with every surgery, there's a very small chance of it going wrong" and all my brain heard was "you're 100% gonna bleed out and die."
I just had this very clear realization through the confusion of the concussion that I didn't tell my brother that I loved him enough. So I called him and told him to move on and live his life to the fullest, and I'll always be proud of him. Yeah, surgery went absolutely fine and when I came round, he just joked, "Even though you survived, I can still live my life to the fullest, right? It wasn't an either/or situation?" I obviously told him he couldn't.
9. Talking to Titus
My dad is a bit of a jokester. He frequently tells my brother and I that his will has a stipulation that he be cremated and his ashes be baked into a loaf of bread. Then, he goes on to tell me and my brother that we have to eat said loaf of bread to qualify for any inheritance. That’s not even the scariest part. My dad is a lawyer—who writes wills!
10. Donate My Organs
When I was 15, I had to have knee surgery because I tore my ACL playing softball. After they doped me up really good my dumb brain decided I might die on the table. As they were wheeling me down to surgery I sat up and shouted at someone random to tell my family I wanted to be an organ donor. I have zero recollection of this but my mom still laughs about it to this day. I’m 37 now.
11. Benevolent Beggar
I had a guy be extremely charitable when we were drafting his will. He left a million to his church, two million to a local hospital, and another two million to the American Heart Association. Then we gave him a quote on how much it cost to draft the will, and it wasn't much, because it was a rather straight-forward document.
He asked for a payment plan; he couldn't afford the will. The dude had no money! He thought you could just leave money to people or organizations, and that the government would foot the bill. He got really mad when we told him that wasn't how it worked.
12. Spirits Crushed
My best friend, his crush, and I were riding our bikes in the nearby forest. My best friend tripped on a rock and went flying into a tree headfirst. His crush at the time and I saw the accident and ran over to help. Luckily I had my cell phone with me to call help. When I was calling, my friend confessed to his crush that he likes her, but his crush didn’t feel the same way.
A helicopter came and airlifted him to a nearby hospital. His crush and he were neighbors so it was awkward for like a year and a half after that.
13. Munificent Motivator
Client: "I'd like to leave $100,000 to my son, $100,000 to my daughter, and $10,000 to each of my ten nephews." Lawyer: "But sir, your estate is worth about $500. Where are your heirs supposed to get this money from?" Slamming his cane on floor, the client roared, "EARN IT, JUST LIKE I HAD TO!!"
14. Shooting The Shot
I was positive the house was going to come down during the in-land hurricane last year. Texted my roommate, who was at work at the time, "So hey, I might die. Just wanted to say I love you. Too much to risk not saying it. If I don't croak, see you tonight, if I do, sorry for the levity." Well, the house was 95% unscathed, and she came home with a huge smile and said she wanted to give it a try.
We aren't together anymore but all in all, could've gone a lot worse. 7/10, would try again.
15. Sweet Tooth
My grandpa originally had just two grandkids, my brother and I. He has a collection of nice cars. Originally, I was getting his two Corvettes and my brother was getting his Cadillac and a race car. Well, my aunt and uncle finally coughed up some kids, and my mom is about to have another baby, so now there are eight grandkids. He's announced that he will be having a contest for the cars. The contest is to make him an apple pie that tastes just like his mother's.
16. Say it Out Loud
I was stationed in Hawaii when that ballistic missile threat came through. Before we knew it was fake I called my wife and my parents, my wife worked on North Shore which was a bit from where we lived on post, so she was at work too far away to reach before the supposed missile would hit, and my parents lived on the East Coast.
Called my wife first, made sure she understood what was happening, and gave her the rundown on what to do immediately, what to do after it hits, etc., and to give a quick call to family. She called her parents and I called mine. Told my parents to do their best to not to panic, told them I loved them no matter what happened. I called my wife again, and tried to keep her as calm as possible.
I told her how much I loved her, told stories of good memories, all while I was sitting there drinking from the bottle knowing either I was about to die or about to go to battle with someone, so it was probably going to be a while either way. Turns out some idiot hit the wrong button. Huge sighs of relief, nervous laughter, some frustration, but it definitely helped my wife, my family’s, and my relationship after saying these things out loud that typically people don’t say.
17. A Shocking Turn of Events
The strangest, and most embarrassing, will reading was in a room crowded with relatives when a man who passed fairly young left absolutely everything to his 26-year-old stepdaughter, which was quite a lot of money and property. The two ex-wives and his children from the first marriage got nothing, nor did siblings, nieces, nephews, etc. The will specified that a DVD be played to explain why the stepdaughter was getting everything. Like everyone else, I thought it'd be the guy explaining the big "screw you" to the rest of the family.
What followed was completely unexpected. It was a hidden camera recording of the guy and his stepdaughter going wild in bed together. The video started in mid-action, with her screaming "yes oh god yes!" It had obviously been edited to start with maximum shock value, and it worked, because it took about 30 seconds for me to recover enough to turn the thing off. It was definitely the biggest "holy moly" moment of my career.
I later learned that the guy and his stepdaughter had a relationship since she was a teen, all the way to when he passed (when she was 26). Apparently, though this is second-hand and I can't confirm, there were multiple clips of various video bits through the ages on the DVD. At the end of the DVD, the guy explains that the stepdaughter gets everything because she'd been "the best lay of his life."
The worst part was that the will specified that I was to give every single family member their own copy of the DVD. The copies had been kept in a box and had been distributed prior to the showing, so everyone had "The Best Moments Of" in their hands, at the time the DVD was playing.
Epilogue: the family sued and lost, believe it or not. The girl got to keep everything.
18. Stale Fish
I had botulism from food-poisoning and as my mom was driving me to the hospital, the symptoms started kicking in big. I was fully convinced that I was not going to make it. I was around 13 at the time. Wasn't really a confession, I just felt really bad that I'm going to die and I knew just how sad that would make my mom. I kept apologizing and saying it's my fault that she will now have to be sad about my passing.
The pickled fish didn't taste right, but I ate it anyway. The worst thing was that she was the one who gave it to me and kept pushing me to just eat it. But she doesn't eat fish so she couldn't have known it was long gone. I can't even imagine what it would do to her if I actually passed that day. The guilt would probably kill her. Or my dad would. Not to mention botulism has a fairly high mortality rate, at 7.5%.
19. Breakfast at Tiffany's
My mom is an elder law attorney, and she has some pretty crazy stories. Once, she had to buy and distribute $166,000 in Tiffany's gift certificates to 43 recipients who were a mix of family, friends, and ex-girlfriends. Ten received $10,000 gift certificates and 33 got $2,000 gift cards. She bought them with credit cards and flew me to Europe with the points she earned.
20. Cat Got Her Tongue
My ex’s grandma’s best friend was given around two weeks to live. The friend had kept her mouth shut for years about some friends and family. Once she heard she was dying, she let loose. She had also given away almost all of her possessions, including her beloved prize-winning cat. 10 days later she made a miraculous u-turn and lived for another two years.
She spent it estranged from the people she went off on, but remained close with those who she loved. She always said she wished she’d been honest sooner. I don’t know if she ever got the cat back though.
21. A Sweet Surprise
When I was in college, a faculty member passed and left his money to the college. In the will, it said, "I don't care what you do with the money, throw the kids an ice cream party or something." And that is exactly what the money was used for; they threw a gigantic ice cream party.
22. Siderodromophobia
I was living in Belgium and soon after there was a series of terrorist attacks—train explosions, the metro, the airport, and the Paris attack. I was taking the train and some weird guy left his backpack on a seat near me and left. I texted my wife, "I know this is crazy, but just in case, I need you to know I love you."
He came back eventually. Now I'm terrified to take the train.
23. Clowning Around
Knowing how status-conscious her greedy relatives were, one lady decided that she would make them suffer for it. When she finally passed, her lawyer approached the family with instructions for her final wishes. According to the will, the only way the relatives could get the money is if they followed the funeral instructions to the letter.
I don't remember all of the absurd details in her instructions, but the central theme is pretty unforgettable. She required an open-casket funeral, with all family members in attendance—and demanded that her body be dressed up like Bozo the Clown, including makeup, red nose, crazy hair, massive shoes, the works.
The family tried to protest, but the will was extremely clear. They either attended the Bozo the Clown funeral, or they didn't get a dime. So they did it. These stuck up vultures had to stand there for hours, glowering, taking weird looks from all of their friends & neighbors as people got close to the casket and realized the deceased was dressed like a clown!
According a funeral parlor employee, the best part of the service came when they tried to shut the casket... and couldn't, because the massive shoes got in the way. They had to bend these 24-inch shoes in half to get the lid closed.
24. Lesson Learnt
I remember the words that my grandfather said to my father, while he was in a hospital bed, "I'm sorry for being a terrible father to you, I kept on pushing my agenda to you and your son, so much that both of you resented me, I'm sorry for being overly strict to both of you. This condition that I am in, let this be karma for me and a lesson to the both of you, I love you."
Only then a few weeks went by and his health was back to normal, and his TB was cured. We were really happy, and I asked him if the words he said a few weeks back were true, and he said it was, and he is now living in a home far from urban life and enjoying the rest of his days peacefully.
25. Post-Mortem Helicopter Parenting
A woman had fallen out with her daughter because she hated the husband that the daughter had chosen. This feud went on for years, to the point where they never had any contact, because whenever they did, things would just get pretty ugly. The daughter refused to leave the husband, and the mother demanded that she did.
So, when the time came to read the will, the daughter was surprised to learn that her mother had left her a good portion of money. However, there was one stipulation: she got the money on the sole condition that the daughter change her surname and her children's surname back to her maiden name, effectively removing this hated husband's name from their family tree.
By the sounds of it, this was a real sticking point for the daughter and the solicitors were pretty confident that the daughter was going to forsake her inheritance, which was a pretty large one, in order to keep her husband's name.
26. Fake News
On his deathbed, while I was out of the room, my friend told my then-wife that I was having an affair with another woman. I wasn't. She did not mention this until he was in the ground. He was always a jokester. So this was a very committed joke or it was the brain cancer talking, or it was that crazy guy just jerking my chain. I never will find out.
27. Creature Comfort
I had this little old lady come in who was a referral from one of our clients. He said she was a little bit strange, but nothing too odd. She had four children, and her husband had passed. She also had a couple hundred thousand dollars in various bank accounts, plus a house. So, she appointed her friend as executor and trustee, with instructions to sell her house when she dies.
A sizeable portion of her estate was to go to some weird church. The rest of her estate was to be invested and used to house her three little dogs. Those dogs are going to be much more wealthy than me in a couple of years!
28. God to The Rescue
When I was in Iraq, I was part of a small team of people who worked on a base. I spent a lot of time alone when my shift was over. In hindsight, being alone in a battle zone makes everything worse. I also had a huge 20+ man tent to myself, since I was kind of a part of one unit and not really part of another. Very frequently we would get rocket and mortar attacks on this base.
They would set up roof gutters in the dirt and drop explosives down with a timer, then leave the area. Hours later, the mortars would go off, usually in threes. They were surprisingly ineffective, but one unfortunate airman lost his hand and legs to an attack, so not completely useless. One night I was reading or playing video games in my tent when I heard the loudest mortar hit.
I remember that I felt the sound more than I heard it. Then there was a second one that was even closer, so close that I heard dirt spray onto my tent. This one did not shock me the same as the first, but it was definitely closer. This is the instant where my brain goes into overdrive. I am alone in a dark tent. I just heard two attacks and they were incredibly close.
I knew the third one was coming. So what do I do in the instant before the third one hits? I make my peace with God. I remember thinking, "If you are there, now is a good time to show up" and also bargaining, "If you save me, I'll become a priest." Well, for what seemed like an eternity, I waited. The third one never hit. I never became a priest, but that moment was absolutely life-changing.
I actually think I have serious PTSD from it, but not in a way that I would expect. Little things bother me, and I am human. I feel like I know God exists and I am at peace with the metaphysical side of life.
29. Isn’t it Ironic?
My father in law always said his favorite story was about an old lady who was worth around 15 million and had five kids. One of her daughters married a horrible man, who would spout the foulest, most prejudiced statements he could think of. When the old lady passed, each child got 3 million—except for the wife of the foul man.
Instead, the old lady donated that daughter's inheritance to things that her tool of a husband liked to complain about, such as historically Black colleges and universities, Planned Parenthood, the Special Olympics, her local synagogue, food banks, etc., because she felt that they ‘both deserved to be penniless and hating each other for being awful human beings.'
30. False Alarm
I was backpacking with my brother and dad. Dad was having a rough go of it, so my brother, who was much fitter, would hike a few miles with me, drop his pack, run back for our dad, grab dad's pack, and both would hike to me, who had hopefully made some progress with both our packs. It was supposed to last a week, but my dad was struggling the first day. I pushed to at least spend a night on the trail as it was my dad's dream to hike this trail, he had been preparing and reading books about it for a year.
So, I was by myself and nearing the overnight shelter when the bushes started shaking. I was convinced I had come across a bear. I carefully headed back to where my brother's pack was and wrote a note to my wife and kids, telling them I loved them and to "not be as stubborn as me." I pulled my driver's license out of my pack and put it in my pants pocket, in case I got mauled, and started hiking to my dad and brother for help, since I didn't have a cell signal.
Before I made it to them, I crossed another hiker headed to the shelter. I had calmed down a bit by then and I figured if there was a bear, he would see it first, so I again started to go to the shelter. Good thing, since I was able to get the tent set up, etc. My dad and brother rolled in at dusk. My brother says it was probably a deer that I came across, but there were signs all over the shelter about an aggressive bear in the area.
Bear or deer, I have never felt such cold terror and a certainty that my life was in danger. I've read a lot since and found that my life was not in danger because black bears rarely attack, but my heart still pounds thinking about it. The next day was mostly a downhill trail, so we all hiked out together. Such a disaster of a trip, but no one was hurt and we have some great stories.
31. You’ve Got it, Sparky!
I once wrote a will for a Lance Corporal, who was told to get a will before deployment. He was a young, single fool. Two specific provisions concerning his funeral stood out: he wanted to be dressed in an Armani suit, and he "wanted to be burned." Naturally, I inquired as to the latter. I said, "Like a pyre?" He didn't know what a pyre was. After a pause, he said "I just had it in my mind... that I'd like, be on the ground... just, burning."
32. In The Arms of Their Lover
I had an old uncle who refused to die until his lifelong mistress came to see him. When he was in a new country he met an amazing woman, but when he went home to visit an arranged marriage was set for him and his father was ill so he ended up staying and having kids. He later immigrated back with his new family and found his old love had never moved on.
He never stopped loving her either. They got back together. Both women knew of each other but never met. His kids called her aunty and knew of her but never met her. On his deathbed he kept on fighting to live, his son asked him if he wanted to see aunty and his eyes grew as he tried to communicate yes. The son called aunty to let her know he was dying. She said she knew and was waiting in her car out in the parking lot. Aunty came to see him and within five minutes he passed in her arms.
33. Father of Nostalgia
A client had two sons. He left a whole bunch of specific distributions to one of the sons; his truck, firearm collection, etc. To the other son, he specifically left one thing: a poster of himself in high school. I have no idea if there was some significance or sentimental value behind the poster or if it was more of a "look at what I'm giving your brother—and here's a poster of me so you will never forget that I loved you less" situation.
34. You’re Not Welcome Here
My mother was battling stage four cancer when I was 11 years old. While she was in hospice at home, her mother-in-law was standing by the bed. She woke up, heavily medicated, pointed at her, and said, "What are you doing here, I never liked you."
35. A Little Fishy
A lady wanted to create a trust fund of £100,000 for her pet fish. When I asked if it was a special kind of fish, she confirmed that it was just a normal goldfish, but that she wanted it to be fed fresh avocado every day and be looked after by a local dog walker after she passed. She was absolutely serious.
36. The Prankster
As my mother lay in her hospice bed dying of cancer she beckoned me closer to her and said, "I've hidden the money...I've hidden the money in the..." she was having trouble speaking and her voice was cracking. She tried one last time "The money's in the..." her eyes closed, her breath stopped and her head slumped to one side. A few seconds later she burst out laughing. She was pranking me.
37. Dress to Impress
My grandfather left me a navy blue tie with pink elephants. It looked ridiculous, but my grandmother said that he wore it to intimidate people in business. He thought that someone willing to wear such a ridiculous tie projected the idea that he didn’t care about what people thought, and that scares people. He wanted me to have it so I could do the same.
38. Priorities
My grandfather was on his deathbed and it was obvious he was nearing the end. He motioned my mother over to tell her something. She went over, leaned in close, expecting some declaration of his love for her or something deeply insightful. He said, "The good family silverware is hidden in the ventilation system about 15 feet out from the furnace."
She looked at him like he was crazy. He said, "What!! We travel a lot and that's where I hid it. That stuff's expensive!"
39. Making a Point
My great uncle's official will gave the contents of his outhouse to the City Council of a nearby town after they tried to take his land twice to build a new water treatment plant. He spent quite a few years fighting imminent domain claims and just wanted to give them something in return. As a joke, his kids boxed up all the books and magazines in the outhouse and dropped them off at City Hall.
40. Can’t Fool Me
In my mom’s last 15-20 years, things went downhill emotionally and mentally for her and she had built a fictional version of her own history that she shared with neighbors, church friends, and co-workers. She wanted to control the image they all had of her. Things had been tense between us for years, but when she got sick, I helped her.
I spent an entire week living at the hospice facility in her room with her because I didn't want her to be alone, and she had literally timed her calls to her sister, who hadn't spoken to us in decades, and her attorney, hoping to avoid any big revelations until after she deceased so she could "win." But some of the stuff she did to me was just cruel. I didn't find out about all of it before her demise, but I caught her egging her sister on to harass me through text messages when she could barely speak. I confronted her and cleared things up with her sister.
Her co-workers came in and fawned over her and told me what a saint she was, and how wonderful and patient she was with the younger nurses. The day after I had busted my mom for lying about ten different things, her boss came in and introduced herself and I told her I had heard a lot about her. She got this look on her face and I realized that my mom had professed to hating her so much because she wasn't fooled.
41. Aquatic Authorization
The city I work for was renovating a small park that was donated to the city in the 1910s. We went looking through the hand-written deed for easements or other restrictions and found that the family could reclaim the property if the park was not, "perpetually provided with a fountain of pleasant running water fit for consumption by man and beast alike." The family still had descendants in town, so we installed a new water fountain with a dog bowl filler, just to be safe.
42. Long Lost Brother
I met a lady on a train to Edinburgh who was really nervous because she was on the way to meet her brother for the first time in 70 years. Her parents had told her that he perished when he was one, but they'd given him away because they couldn't afford so many kids. She didn't find out he was still alive until her mother confessed it on her deathbed.
43. Litigious Librarian
My dad’s partner had a lady come in with an itemized list of books. She wanted her will to contain a record of all of the books and their recipients, based on her choosing. The truly astonishing thing is how many books she had, and how specific the assignments got. Her list is currently at about 2,000 books and is to be divided among about 30 people. She apparently comes back at least once a year to add all the new books she’s gotten.
44. Not to The Taste
Me and all of my cousins were gathered around my grandfather's hospice bed as he lay dying. Each and every one of my cousins gave him a kiss and tried to talk to him/said they loved him, etc. But he wouldn't respond to any of them, just started. Until I came up. I sat on the edge of his bed, holding his hand. Everyone was watching us.
He looked at me and said, "I don't like Mexican food." And that was it.
45. Forgotten Lunches
My favorite was this man who left some of his kids just a dollar because it was easier than leaving them out entirely, but then went on a massive rant about how he tried to go to lunch with them and sometimes they were too busy working, and it was unforgivably rude, and they should use this will as a wake-up call to treat their elders better. It rambled just like that, and I remember it being very specific regarding dates and times of lunch requests. That portion read like a diary. I bet they were sorry.
46. At Least She’s Supportive
Just before my aunt passed away, my older brother confessed to her that I was gay. She called me in and explained how our family has been through so much and that she was willing to totally accept me for who I am. I think that is great of her to be that open-minded. Except there was one huge problem: I'm not gay. She never believed me because my brother had "confessed" it.
47. Taxi Driver
One of our clients passed recently. Turns out the man she left almost everything to, including the residue of her estate—which was considerable—was her regular taxi driver. She had also named him as her executor. He had no clue. The person who had been named as her executor and main beneficiary on her previous two wills, a close friend of many years, was understandably flabbergasted and contested the will. We informed Mr. Taxi Driver, who didn't even know our client had passed, and the will was upheld.
48. Gather The Stars
My aunt had cancer. She knew she was going to die and she knew it would probably be in less than a week. She couldn't eat and drinking was hard. She wanted to be sedated heavily and kept asleep permanently, essentially for the last few days because, "this whole dying thing sucks and I've had more than enough." So fair enough, a doctor is called up, a plan is made and carried out.
The last thing my aunt said before going under for the rest of her life was, "Ah, I see the stars, they're sweet and run carefree. Gather them up." And that's when she went under. She passed three days later. Nobody knows what she meant. But somehow, those last words fit her, so her husband got them tattooed on his chest, over his heart.
49. Tell us What you Really Think!
My grandfather left my uncle three things from his rather valuable estate: one dollar in unrolled pennies; a framed copy of the contract my uncle signed saying he owed my grandfather $100 000, which he had never repaid; a framed copy of the letter my uncle sent my grandfather saying he was disowning my grandfather for "being cheap." I was only a kid, but I understood.
50. Big Announcement
My grandfather was in the hospital in a pretty nasty state. He barely could speak, but he made it clear to us he had something to say. He had my mother get him a piece of paper and a pen. Thinking he has some important words to leave us with in case he doesn't have the chance later, my mom does just that. There's silence in the room as he scribbles something onto the paper, with my mother and her two siblings waiting in anticipation.
My grandfather finishes, and with a big smile turns the paper for us to see. "I've got a girlfriend," it read, as he pointed to Anna, a neighbor and friend of his. The goofball ended up pulling through and living several more years.
51. Purr-fect Lifestyle
One client left $100,000 to his two cats so that they could "maintain their current lifestyle."
52. Lies For All These Years
For years my grandma complained about how my grandpa cooked eggs. My mom would also tell me the story about how she would hold the eggs my grandpa made in her mouth and spit them out at school. When we were younger my grandpa would make us eggs if we slept over at their house and I thought they were fine. My grandma would never eat them though.
It was funny because my grandpa didn't care. My grandma got sick and was in and out of the hospital. She would tell the staff how much she didn't like my grandpa's cooking, especially the eggs. My aunt was the last person to visit her, I was supposed to see her that Friday. The night before her demise, my grandma admitted to actually liking my grandpa's eggs.
53. No Excuses
My sister used to work for a non-profit that frequently received bequests from wealthy estates. The non-profit has been around for at least 200 years, and they have some really strange old bequests still kicking around. One is particularly memorable. Apparently, they get money each year on the condition that they arrange to ship a set of books to Liberia every summer.
54. She’s Here
My grandfather was dying of cancer. He was 90. Our entire family would sit with him in his own home, tending to him in shifts, making sure everyone had alone time with him and all made him feel needed and loved during his passing. Gramps would regularly point to a spot where no one was and say, "Hello, Hazel, they are all here again." And then smile. Or he'd say, "Yes, dear, that's Linda's little girl."
Hazel was his wife, my grandmother, who had deceased two decades prior. The chilling bit was that Grandpa would then turn to us and say, "Oh, I forget you can't see her."
55. Grandpa Charlie?
In his will, my grandpa instructed that a chocolate bar should be given to each one of his grandkids. Unfortunately, I have 12 cousins, and some were very difficult to track down. All other items in the will were frozen for months because they couldn’t find everyone, and we eventually had to go to court. The lawyer that was helping execute the will was blown away that the stipulation had been allowed. I’m not complaining, though; I got a Toblerone out of the deal!
56. Blessing in Disguise
My grandma confessed to my mom when she thought she was dying that she tried to coat hanger abort her. Obviously it was unsuccessful. My grandma was a religious woman, and decided that God wanted her to have this baby, and treated my mom like her favorite child. This messed my mom up for a while, and that wasn't even the worst part. It got 10 times more awkward when my grandma surprisingly got better.
After Grandma expired for real, my mom eventually made peace with it. After she was born, Grandma never treated her like she was unwanted, so mom understood she was in a vulnerable place at the time.
57. Booby Trap
I was forced to write a will due to the health insurance I get at work and, amongst the sensible stuff, the in-house lawyer said it was totally okay for me to add this clause: "My funeral wishes are that I be buried in a coffin which has been spring-loaded, such that opening the coffin would cause alarm to future archaeologists."
58. Holding On
My cousin, my dad, and I visited my grandfather in the hospital right before he passed. When we were leaving, both my father and cousin gave him a hug and said their goodbyes. I did the same, but when I was about to move away he grabbed my hand and held me there for a few more seconds. I was always close to my great grandparents, closer than any of my siblings or cousins, but he never showed how much he loved me until that moment.
No words, just holding on one last time. His demise was the hardest I had to deal with, much because of that moment.
59. Spit Happens
My great aunt had about $2 million when she passed; she left half to a small church in the middle of nowhere and the other half to a llama sanctuary. She left each of her family members about $25. She had no children of her own, and most of the extended family was greedily making plans for how they'd spend her money. It was her final revenge against them. I was about 9 at the time, and was thrilled at the $25 I got.
60. Chase The Rainbow
This cherished memory was when my grandmother from the other side of my family was in hospice and on her way out. She and I always used to joke about dying and how it was shocking that she was the last of my grandparents as she smoked, drank, and stayed up all hours of the night watching TV. She was my best friend for my whole life.
I really wish I would have known it was the last time that we would talk. She was in her hospital bed and looked at me as I held her hand and she said, "I'm ready now." "You want the jello now grandma?" I asked her. She genuinely guffawed and said, "NO I'M READY!! I'm ready to go chase rainbows!" Then she relaxed and said she was tired and wanted a nap.
My son who was two at the time said, "I love you" as we left and she was the second person he ever said that to. I'm crying just thinking about it. She was such an awesome woman.
61. Better than Weight Watchers
One client set it up so that his will could be awarded in financial installments to his daughter. The only catch? His daughter had to remain under a certain weight. I was flabbergasted. It didn’t even make sense, because she was not and had never been overweight! Dude was controlling her diet from beyond the grave.
62. Young at Heart
My great-grandmother asked my mother to go clean her "toys'' out of her nightstand before the rest of the family went through the house after she perished. My mom thought it was hilarious and awesome.
63. Read Between the Lines
My grandmother specified which of the children and grandchildren should get which of the family recipes, and somehow felt the need to include commentary about why certain decisions were made. One was a Prohibition-era recipe for beer that I knew my uncle, also a homebrewer, wanted, but she left it to me, with the comment, "I know you wanted it, Teddy, but my granddaughter has the second-best penmanship of the girls, and will make you a copy."
And then, like eight pages later, in among the specific descriptions of her vast collection of romance novels was this line: "And this book to my granddaughter, who will please subtract about half the hops before she copies the beer recipe for her Uncle Teddy so that any of us can drink it. Our Jon had his IPA last summer and just about collapsed."
Uncle Jon just about burst into tears laughing and Uncle Teddy had long since left the room because he didn’t care about romance novels. I have no idea how she got this will done. My guess is she wrote it herself and the law students who came to her independent-living building signed off on it. There wasn’t much value in the estate, so it was mostly a funny last letter from Grandma.
64. Dancing to Another's Tune
My grandmother was super religious my whole life. Always going to church and doing right by her community. In her last few hours, she said she really did not believe in god and wished she had not wasted all that time in her life doing what she thought others wanted her to do. It was pretty crazy for her husband, my dad, and aunt to hear her say that.
65. Surfacing Secrets
A client of mine confessed to me that she has a secret daughter. She wanted to leave the daughter some money and photographs without the rest of her family finding out, because nobody knows about her. Even her husband does not know. That will be a fun conversation when she passes away and the will is read!
66. Secret Agent
My grandmother wrote us a letter to read at her memorial service where she admitted that she had been recruited by the CIA when she was a young woman in the 1950s. Now that was a surprise.
67. A Family Tradition
My great grandfather had a pair of socks that he only wore on Christmas Day, for Christmas dinner with the family. They were hideous. After he passed, we found out he had left those socks to my uncle in his will and instructed him to carry on the tradition, which my uncle has done. I've already been told I'm getting them next.
68. Double Life
Both of my grandparents served in WWII and were lucky enough to survive. While growing up we were told that they performed normal basic jobs during the war. As each one came closer to their demise, more truths came out. My grandfather on my mother's side revealed he was more of a black ops seal type and not a cook as he previously stated. Grandfather on my dad's side was in charge of the army's computers for casualty tabulation.
69. Lifelong Catch
One interesting case in inheritance law that I came across was the one of a rich owner of a private bank, who left his shares to his sons under the condition that they act as managers of the private bank, but with a personal liability concerning the bank's debt. What he did essentially was give them the money and commit them to lifelong work in the bank, while putting their own assets at risk.
So, when one of the sons decided to sell his shares because he was old and sick, the courts had to decide whether he would receive any money at all from the will, as the condition was technically not fulfilled anymore, as he had given up the manager position.
70. They Deserved It!
It was a few months before my grandmother passed when she told me that she peed on her mother-in-law's grave, and said, "Son of a wench deserved it!" She was a little nutty, and I have a deep streak of her madness flowing through my veins.
71. Favoritism at its Worst
A will from 1986 included the craziest provision I have ever seen. It stipulated which of the woman’s three sons would be allowed to name one of their children after her. Apparently her name had been "in the family for time eternal," and she wanted to make sure the best son was the one who carried it on. It also included a summary of why only one of them, the youngest son, was worthy of the right. It was pretty cruel to the other two.
72. Unexpressed Love
My grandfather and I were never close despite us all living together. We were both arrogant know-it-alls so our personalities clashed. We loved each other, just rarely had anything to say to each other. Most of the family was away on a trip with just me, my siblings, and grandma looking after him when his heart condition worsened. We took him to the hospital and I was told, "This is it." And then they tell him the same.
He just nods silently and goes, "Yeah, I figured." I spend every day by his side while studying for my exams and again we don't talk much. My family booked the quickest flight back and arrived just a few days before he passed. Found out a week after his demise that when I was off writing an exam he told my mom he was insanely proud of me for keeping everything together and that I wasn't as lazy or self-absorbed as he once thought.
I never got that hug and final understanding moment with him, but I'll always love and remember him fondly. I'm glad we did understand each other, even if it wasn't face to face.
73. Mothman’s Aunt
My great aunt, with whom I barely had any relationship, left me a taxidermy giant silk moth that she had hanging on her wall. Evidently, someone had told her about my love for bugs. I still have it and it's one of the coolest things in my collection of odd knickknacks. She left my cousin a Furby.
74. A Critic’s Eye
When my grandad was on his deathbed, my mum and dad arrived shortly before he passed. He opened his eyes and looked at my dad to say, "I don't like your jumper."
75. No Fighting This Will!
Sometime in 1995 or early 1996, an elderly woman left over $2 million to the professional wrestler Shawn Michaels, who she had never met, just because she enjoyed watching him on TV. It’s not like he needed the money either; he'd have been making over $500,000 a year at that point.
Wikimedia Commons, Felipe Bascuñan
76. God’s Plan
My gramma's brother was in his final moments and he confessed to his wife that he was cheating her a lot, with three other women. He confessed because he was afraid of going through misery after his passing, but it looked like God had other plans for him. Unfortunately for him, and no one knows why, in a blink of an eye he got better and better, until one week later he was released by the doctors. His wife's brother was a lawyer, they issued him and got almost everything.
He lived for seven more years without any money and all the women and their children abandoned him, so he perished alone at home.
77. Shout Out
My grandfather has a rather unique will. It directs the lawyer to say, “hi so-n-so,” to several people, just so he can say that he mentioned that person in his will. He tells lots of people in the family that they are "in his will." It’s a joke that only he thinks is funny, and he won’t be around for the punchline. I think it’s brilliant. He has about 10 people mentioned.
78. Best of Both Worlds
My mom and her dad both grew up believing and hearing stories from my great-grandmother about how she was the daughter of a Cherokee woman who ran off and joined the circus. It was a good tale. My great-grandmother taught all of us rain dances and other cultural things. All of her decor and style was Cherokee-inspired. She even physically looked Native American. My older cousin even got some college grant based on being 1/16th Native American.
On my great-grandmother's deathbed, she tells my grandpa that she made all of it up. Turns out her mother was really just a woman of European descent who slept around with other men in her neighborhood and dumped my great-grandmother in an orphanage.
79. The Last Laugh
My Dad had a quirky sense of humor. In his will, the note under my name was as follows: “throw this rock at my son and hit him in the head with it, but make it surprising.” I was thinking, what kind of a will is this? Then I read a little further on...and found that he had left a note saying, “this is the rock that my son hit me in the head with when I was teaching him how to skip rocks.”
I had apparently hit him so hard that I dented his skull above his ear, and it never really healed. It was the most meaningful thing he’d ever done, and after all the years me and my dad had messed around with each other, it was his way of winning and taking the final crack at me. It was so heartfelt, it moved me to tears. He got the last laugh and I was completely ok with it.
80. Anything But a Teacher!
I come from a family of teachers. My grandmother was a teacher, my mother was a teacher, my father was a principal, and four of my grandmother's sisters were teachers. On my grandfather's deathbed, he called me over, grabbed my hand, and said to me "Kasper-X-Hauser, whatever you do, don't waste your life and become a teacher!"
81. To Beyond the Grave
I advised on a will where the deceased had left considerable assets to people who had already kicked the bucket by the time the will was read. There is nothing unusual in that per se, except that these individuals were long dead when the will was made. The lawyer apparently asked the guy, "You know you're giving your money to dead people?" and even sent him to a doctor to make sure his mental state was okay. The doctor gave him a full bill of health and said he was perfectly compos mentis, so the will stood.
82. Let The Boat Sail
Before my grandma from my mom's side passed, she had spent at least three weeks in a semi-conscious or more like a quasi dream state before finally dying. Her house was on a lake and her deathbed was in a room that overlooked it. During those weeks, she would constantly tell my mother that a boat was waiting for her and asked if it was all right if she could get on it.
This persisted, along with my grandmother having full conversations with relatives who were gone years before I was even born, until one day when my grandma asked my mother if it would be alright if she could leave on the boat again, to which my mother finally replied with, "It's alright if you want to." My grandma departed a couple hours later.
Eerie little tidbit, my grandmother's watch, which was in another room at the time of her demise, stopped at the exact time of my grandmother's passing. Apparently, it's pretty common for weird stuff to happen around the time of passing for people in my family. When an uncle who I never met perished, a car of his that hadn't worked for years suddenly turned on.
And when my grandma from my dad's side expired, the doorbell at my parents' gate rang but no one was standing there.
83. Meticulous Planning
I had a client who insisted I write this in her will: “To my daughter Anne, who created my beautiful granddaughter Jane, and her dear fourth husband John, who laid hands on my Jane, I leave one dollar, you money-grubbing hooligans. To Jane, I leave all of my monetary assets, save $5,000, and my best firearm, which I leave to my son Bill, on the condition that he confronts John with it during the time between my funeral and my burial. Jane, bail your uncle out of jail, please.”
84. Final Message
When I was fifteen, my dog had to be put down due to an inoperable heart tumor and internal bleeding. It was a sad moment, but as I went down to pet him one last time in that time of tranquility, he growled at me. Not anyone else in my family of six. Just me. That dog really growled at me. It's like in his last moments, he was giving a final, “Screw you."
About two years before his passing, my dog Tucker began to dislike me. A lot. Before this, he used to love me and I used to love him. But as I hit a growth spurt, and got half a foot taller than I was, he began to resent me more and more. This resulted in me having not much of a good relationship with him, and I guess this showed on his deathbed.
85. Reverse Golden Rule?
My father has been heavily involved in my great aunt and uncle's lives since their health began to decline. They are both in their mid 90's with no children, and my father has seen their will. They have a small fortune in excess of $1,000,000—and have left it all to a local dog's home. When my dad asked them about it, my great uncle's response was "nobody has helped me in life, so I won't be helping anybody either."
86. Tough Love
In a sweet moment, while my grandmother was in hospice, my aunt started singing her a hymn while she thought she was resting. My grandma opened her eyes and told her she was a terrible singer. Wouldn't have hurt to have provided that bit of tough love a couple of decades earlier, to be honest.
87. Nit-Picking
We had an 84-year-old client who was, in the simplest terms, quite insane. She would call every single month to change her will. It would always be small details, such as removing her daughters because they hadn’t called her in a while, or increasing one child’s percentage and lowering another’s based on whether she was mad at them or not.
But there was one part that she would never change: what she would leave for her dog. She wanted to leave her dog $25,000, plus more money for the care of the dog and to make sure she lived comfortably. Sadly, her dog passed away before her and she had to remove that part from her will. So, she just went back to playing with the percentages that her daughters would receive.
88. Majestic Park
My Grandpa was effectively my dad, though not biologically related to me at all. He expired of Leukemia in 2011, and my family and I essentially took days with him in the hospital during the time before his death. During my day with him, he was a bit off thanks to pain and medication. Right after one of his more disconnected episodes, he sits up in bed, swings his feet over to the floor, and then suddenly just stops—maybe due to fluid motion abruptly ending.
From the mouth of a man who had never said anything about beauty, art, or the like come the words "Majesticpark, look at the sky! It's beautiful," so I look. Looks to me like the sky from "The Seine at Argenteuil," which is kinda pretty even to me, a complete neanderthal with respect to art. Then he continues, "I'm so proud of you and your mother."
For me, the shocking part was the verbal recognition of something beautiful, but the latter portion had me pretty bent out of shape, in a good way and I needed to sit out the evening shift I had at the time. I miss that guy.
89. Centre of the Family
My great aunt, who had no children, put in her will that a certain percent of her money was to be distributed evenly amongst her nieces and nephews. She stipulated that the remaining money would go to my dad, as long as he used it to throw a big family reunion party. Even after she was gone, she brought the family together; it was a great party in her honor!
90. Left Unsaid
I was on the phone with my grandpa when he was in the hospital. He was dying from emphysema and COPD. He had been on oxygen for years, a small tube in his nose. I guess in the hospital they put an oxygen mask on him. We had a short conversation, and it was really hard to understand him. He repeated something and I just said, "Okay." While I had no clue what he was saying.
To this day I feel like he was trying to tell me something. It bothers me a lot. I feel really bad about it.
91. Better Get on Tinder
My folks have informed me that I will only be inheriting debts if I do not produce a legitimate child. In that case, all assets will go to my sister. If I do have a legitimate child, which they're defining as “must pass a paternity test” and I have to be married to the mother, then the split of assets and debt is 50/50.
92. Guardian Angel
My girlfriend was sitting with her father near his deathbed. He was incoherent the past few days as he was obviously getting close to dying. He sat up, looked at her, and pointed to the ceiling. "Denise, he said. That's my guardian angel. I don't need him anymore, I told him to watch over you. He laid back down in bed and passed.
93. Surprise!
A regular customer at the store I worked in told me he was terminally ill, which upset me because I'd gotten to know him well. He was a good guy, and it turned out that he had quite a bit of money. He had a daughter with whom he was not on good terms. He told me that he was leaving her “the contents of his bank safety deposit box.” It sounded nice, but there was a huge catch. Inside, he left a bunch of pop-up snakes, primed and ready to burst out when the box was opened. Then the rest of his estate was to be used to fund the building of a respite home.
94. The Obvious Answer
My girlfriend told me that her grandfather's last words were a joke in response to his nurse. The nurse asked, "How do you feel?" He replied, "With my fingers."
95. Scrupulous Script
My grandpa left me all his tools, a pretty good chunk of change, and his dog Tanner. But, to get it I had to do some...strange things. According to the fine print in his will, I have to make sure his live-in girlfriend at the time got nothing at all, and tell my uncle that he was fat and his wife was going to leave him if he got any fatter. There was literally a script inside the will.
96. Sharing is Caring
My father was recently diagnosed with cancer. After the initial surgery to remove tumors, he was very weak, in a lot of pain, and scared because for the first time in his life he wasn’t in control of what was happening to him. Let me preface the rest of this by saying he’s always been very selfish and only really does anything that either benefits him somehow or is convenient for him, including being a parent. We were raised by a single mother for most of our childhood, and then got an awesome step-dad from our middle-teens to current day.
My father has always told my brother and I that we aren’t getting any inheritance and that he’s going to spend it all before he dies. He’s been a bachelor for 30 years, so he has no spouse either. We’ve always said that it was fine, to not give him more power over us and it is his money so he should spend it how he chooses.
So my dad is in the hospital, thinking he’s going to die any day, so he calls my brother and I and says he’s realized that he doesn’t need to be in a pine box before giving us anything. He’s going to give us each a chunk of money and watch us enjoy it before he dies. Now, this money did come with strings—we had to tell him what we were going to use it for and he had to approve.
We both talked about doing some home improvement. This was met with approval. He never said how much we were going to get, but the ideas he was throwing out there were pretty high dollar, a new pool for my bro, new floors and windows for me, so our eyes were kind of popping. It was very generous, and in my case, potentially game-changing, as I really do need both and am in no position to afford either.
Fast forward two weeks and all the tests came back. He had a very treatable form of cancer that was caught early and he had an excellent prognosis. Both my brother and I flew to where he lives to care for him after he got out of the hospital and started chemo. He sat us down and said something to the effect of, “Now that I’m not dying, there are still some things I want to do, so I’m not giving you any money.”
Totally his prerogative and his money, and totally in keeping with his personality. But still, oof.
97. Spoiler Alert Will
Two sons of a really wealthy couple go to the family lawyer to have their recently deceased parents' will read. The lawyer is super nervous because he has known them both since they were kids. One son gets the entire inheritance, and the other gets nothing. The explanation was that it should be passed through to blood relatives only. So that was the day he found out he was adopted.
98. Ready To Go
My grandfather had a couple of inoperable embolisms that were going to kill him at some point, and doctors told him that he'd know it when the time came. One of them ruptured a few years later and he was taken off to the hospital where they confirmed there wasn't anything they could do for him and it was only a matter of time.
He told them since he was dying anyway he was going to keep his pants on because hotel smocks suck and he was dying and they couldn't make him. He passed out for a few hours and we all thought he was gone until he sat up, looked around, and said, "What am I still doing here?” He went back to sleep and passed shortly afterward.
99. The Golden Rule
A good friend of mine looked after an older lady. She was his neighbor and, as far as he knew, she had no family. So, he was at her place every day when he wasn't working. I met her a few times, she was a sweet old lady. She had three cats that were her babies, she spoiled them to no end. She even had a "cat room" for them.
Well, one day after my friend had been looking after her for a few years, she passed peacefully in her sleep. He found out that she named him in her will. He attended the reading and found three 20-something ladies there too. Turns out the lady had moved across the country unannounced a few years earlier, and had disappeared from the daughters’ lives.
The old woman left my buddy 19. Million. Dollars. She left the cats to a lifelong friend from her home state and donated all of her belongings to the Salvation Army. And her daughters? Each received, "A single litter box and all of its contents," along with one $20 bill each to "give them each a last taste of all she was to them." That sweet old lady is my hero.
100. Amazing Grace
My great-grandmother passed in July at 105. She had really bad dementia, so she never knew who I was and barely remembered her own kids. She lived in a nursing home for the last fifteen years of her life and the last five of those years she became a clairvoyant. She would sing amazing grace when she could tell someone was about to die, it was the craziest thing, because the nurses at the nursing home said that it would happen literally every time.
The most chilling part about it is she sang it one day and no one croaked, but she passed out a couple of hours after singing and then expired later on that night.
101. We’ll Have Some of What She’s Having
My grandma said some pretty funny stuff while she was on painkillers after brain surgery. My aunt jokingly asked her who her favorite child is and my grandma said and pointed at my mom without missing a beat. Then she told my aunt that the purse she gifted her for her birthday was hideous and that nobody needs that many zippers.
She made some fairly inappropriate remarks to the doctor as well, she was really cracking herself up. By the end of the first day, we'd all stopped asking her questions that we didn't want to know the answer to and everyone was wishing they had a bit of whatever she was on to get through the rest of the week.
102. Nature’s Calling
This is when my grandfather passed. We knew the time was near. Hours rather than days. He started telling a story in labored breaths. It was an analogy of how becoming a good person is like making a pie. We called everyone to his bed. It's time we all thought. I won't go into the details of the story but it ended, he closed his eyes. It was quiet. We were all watching his chest to see if he was still breathing.
We knew the time had come. We all held hands around his bed and said a prayer. He then whispered something. We couldn't understand what he was trying to say and asked him to repeat himself. In a somewhat annoyed tone, he said, "I've got to go poop!" We laughed it off and a few of us assisted him with his needs. He passed early the next day. I think those may have been his last words.
103. No Show
My wife's grandmother, who raised her, believed that when you are about to die your deceased relatives show up to escort you to heaven. She was by all accounts a horrible person. On her deathbed her last words were, in a quiet terrified voice, "They're not coming."
104. Wear Your Hard Hat Kids!
I had a co-worker "Larry" who was in a job-site accident. Basically, he was underneath some scaffolding when it was backed into by a vehicle and collapsed on top of him. He was pinned down, couldn't feel his legs, and was bleeding from a head wound. Larry was 100% convinced he was going to die. We were trying to pull the scaffold off and render first aid and all that, and he kept asking to use a phone to call his wife "Suzie."
Our supervisor gave him a phone. Larry called Suzie and confessed to everything. It was truly shocking. He admitted to having multiple affairs, looting from Suzie's parents, creeping on their neighbor's teenage daughter and doing coke with Suzie's sister. Larry was crying, telling her he was so sorry, begging for forgiveness. Turns out Larry was just pinned down by a couple of tubes and bracers that fell together just right and was tight enough to pinch a nerve and slow circulation a bit.
He got six stitches on his head and some bruises, and that was the extent of his physical injuries. However, he did lose his house, his pickup truck, custody of his kids, and half his paycheck to child support and alimony. Plus he got written up for not wearing a hard hat under scaffolding.
105. Parents’ Princess
In my grandma's last days, she requested that mum stay with her alone, and it was only then that she revealed the secret she'd been keeping for decades: She revealed that my mum wasn't her biological kid. My grandma confessed that she had bought my mum from a child trafficking ring, which was common in China, because she had tried for many years and still could not get pregnant. My mother cried a lot, not only for the unimaginable pain that her biological parents likely went through in losing a baby, but also for the fact that my grandparents have gone beyond to treat my mum as their little princess.
They literally did treat my mum as their own. They were never abusive and only gave her the very best in life. They even willingly sent my mum to the US for a university education even though they aren't rich by any means.
106. No Show
My wife's grandmother, who raised her, believed that when you are about to die your deceased relatives show up to escort you to heaven. She was by all accounts a horrible person. On her deathbed her last words were, in a quiet terrified voice, "They're not coming."
107. If Not Now, When?
This was a weird one for me and actually apropos for my current life. I still think about her. This happened maybe six or seven years ago. She was an older female in her 70s with a history of breast cancer. At that point, she was in the ICU for sepsis, I believe. I talked to her and she mentioned she was widowed. I gave my condolences and stated “That’s hard, I’m sorry about your loss. I imagine you miss him.” Her response shocked me.
To my surprise, she told me, “No, actually I don’t. I was relieved when he went. I was never happy with him. I didn’t leave him because that’s not what we did back in the day. So here I wasted many years with a man who didn’t treat me well, and now I have cancer.” Oof. Life lesson folks.
108. Something Strange In The Neighborhood…
When I was around six to eight years old, I remember I had to start asking my mom to go play in the backyard with my siblings so that she could supervise us. We never had to do this previously, so my siblings and I were very confused. Any time we didn’t ask, we got in big trouble. Eventually, when we got older and before she passed, my mom finally told us the truth. We were absolutely floored.
It turned out the neighbors were harboring a known pedophile in their house, and that’s why mom got so upset with us going outside without asking.
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