Dying Words

Quotes, Pictures, Facts and Miscellany related to the final traces people leave behind. Have a submission? Send it to dyingwordsblog @ gmail.com

[thelastmessagereceived]

My dad passed away in April, this was the last message we had together the day before, I wish I had talked to him more.

[dyingwords]

I never thought I would be writing this post at least not yet. A couple of weeks ago we went on holiday en famile. It was supposed to be a family treat to give me strength for facing more surgery i...

“Everyone’s journey is different, everyone’s journey is unique. Please remember me and my family.  Thank you for reading. Rosie” 

Rosie Choueka was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. She chronicled her experience in the WordPress linked here, naming the cancer Genghis. She published her final blog post shortly before her death on June 16th, 2015. She was 38.

[washingtonpost]

Leonard Nimoy’s last tweet.

[dyingwords]

No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun – for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax – This won’t hurt.

Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author, hand-wrote the above note to his wife, Anita, on February 16th, 2005. Four days later he shot himself in the head with a handgun in his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. His son, Juan, found his body.

At the time of his death, Thompson's typewriter held a sheet of paper with only the date February 22nd, 2005 and one word, "Counselor," typed.

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of Thompson's death.

[dyingwords]

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer, published Feb 19th, 2015 in the New York Times.

[dyingwords]

“Mayday, mayday! Engine flameout!”

-- The final words of TransAsia Flight GE235 pilot Liao Chien-tsung. The plane crashed two minutes after takeoff in Taipei, Taiwan on February 4th, 2015. Of 58 passengers and crew, 15 people survived the crash, which narrowly missed city buildings to land in the Keelung River.

At this time it is uncertain what caused the crash, pending further investigation. Pilot and copilot bodies were found still clutching the controls.

[dyingwords]

My body is on fire. No one should go through this. I'm not afraid to die. We all going to die.

Final words of Charles Frederick Warner, convicted of raping and murdering an 11-month-old girl in Oklahoma. His last words were spoken shortly after administration of a lethal injection at 7:10 PM on January 15th, 2015; Warner was pronounced dead at 7:28.

[dyingwords]

"I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it."

— The alleged last words of Errol Flynn. Flynn died in Vancouver, Canada on October 14th, 1959. His exact cause of death was unclear; most of his organs showed damage. An official at the Vancouver Coroner stated that Flynn looked like “a tired old man – old before his time, and sick.” He was 50 years old.

[lazerprincess]

[dyingwords]

Click through for Leelah Alcorn's suicide note, queued up to post after her death. Leelah stepped in front of a semi on Sunday, 12/28/14. She was 17. 

Her note ends:

As for my will, I want 100% of the things that I legally own to be sold and the money (plus my money in the bank) to be given to trans civil rights movements and support groups, I don’t give a shit which one. The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please.

Goodbye,

(Leelah) Josh Alcorn

[dyingwords]

"I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."

 -- Last words, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci 

[dyingwords]

It's easy to read #EricGarner's final words and feel like he's speaking for thousands pic.twitter.com/L6EeCCVbs1

— Brooke Jarvis (@brookejarvis) December 4, 2014

[nowinexile]

The last words said by Black youth murdered by policemen. 

[dyingwords]

Created by Shebe86

[dyingwords]

 "Ne pleure pas, Alfred! J'ai besoin de tout mon courage pour mourir à vingt ans."

-- Évariste Galois' final words, spoken to his brother, Alfred, after being fatally wounded in a duel. Galois was a promising but reckless mathematician who published brilliant work but often ran into academic and political trouble in his short lifetime. Details on the duel remain scant; the legend of this impetuous young mathematician makes it difficult to separate out fact from fiction in accounts of his death.

English translation: "Do not cry, Alfred! I need all my courage to die at twenty."

[dyingwords]

Tell them I don't want an open casket.

Rodney Ian Clavell allegedly spoke these words shortly before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, ending a 13-hour hostage situation and a two-week manhunt on June 5th, 2014. Clavell, 46 at the time of his death, was a former security guard with a history of violence. This final incident began with a firearms violation arrest warrant and ended in an Adelaide, Australia brothel. Details are still pending.

[dyingwords]

Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

— Maya Angelou (@DrMayaAngelou)

May 23, 2014

Dr. Maya Angelou's final tweet. Angelou died on May 28th, 2014. She was 86. 

[dyingwords]

"Fuck you."

— Tupac Shakur’s last words, responding to a police officer who asked, “Who shot you?”

Chris Carroll, the first officer on the scene, recently came forward with his version of the fatal shooting of Shakur, a crime which remains unsolved today. His story was first published here. The artist died six days later on September 13th, 1996, sedated through multiple surgeries. He was 25.

[dyingwords]

"Make the world better."

 -- Lucy Stone, spoken to her daughter - Alice Stone Blackwell - on October 18th, 1893. Lucy Stone, an abolitionist and suffragist, was the first woman in Massachusetts to graduate with a college degree. She is most well-known for entering into an unusual marriage (for the era) in which her husband, Henry Blackwell, agreed that she would not become his property and that she would keep her last name.

Stone was 75 years old at the time of her death; she was the first person in New England to be cremated.