Hal - Deliberately Basic

What Will Be Your Last Words

What a grand thing it would be if you could have at least ten family members present  at your death, all hovered around the bed waiting to hear the last words you will ever say. Given this scenario, what would you say? Straining, barely audible, I would like to exhale the final words,
“There is over a million dollars in bonds and cash buried in the…” and then stop breathing. The problem is, I wouldn’t be there to watch the scramble.

Of course there are many well known “last words” of celebrities and famous historical figures. Oscar Wilde is supposed to have said,
“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”
The poet, Dylan Thomas said,
“I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies, I think that’s the record.”
François Rabelais, a controversial, satirical 16th century writer, known for his humor said,
“I owe much; I have nothing; the rest I leave to the poor.”

Your last words may not be just before the moment of death. On his arrival in Dallas in 1963, John F. Kennedy said,
“If someone is going to kill me, they will kill me.”
It follows that if you say something the may require an apology, there is a good possibility you may not be around to render the apology. Think about that the next time you mouth those nasty words to your wife during a heated discussion.

In the end, even if you happen to be acclaimed, renowned for curing cancer, a Nobel prize winner, a poet or a plumber, your last words may never be recorded. Or you may say something you wouldn’t want recorded. You step in front of a bus, turn and scream,
“What the f**k!”

What will be your last words? Even you don’t know, because you don’t know when the end will come. At his death, Pancho Villa said,
“Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.”

Just be careful what you say, or better be careful what you think.

Hal Brown

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