These “last words” were not just chilling, but they also left a lasting impact, sending shivers down the spines of those who heard them.
The doctors and caretakers who heard these people’s final words weren’t just creeped out.
They had to share these haunting last words with Reddit so everyone online could share their opinions on them.
Deal With the Devil
I was looking after an elderly woman who had gone downhill and was on her last legs for about a week. She kept asking me to read the Bible to her, and as soon as I started, she would scream.
She said he was coming to get her and that he was waiting right behind me. Finally, I asked her who was coming to get her. Her answer chilled me to the bone.
She replied, “The Devil’s coming for me because I let my husband hurt our kids and did nothing.”
These next last words were beyond strange. One woman seemingly had clairvoyance and knew that she’d soon see her son.
Reddit/Careful_Example
Motherly Instinct
I’m not a doctor or a nurse, but I was taking care of my grandma on her deathbed. She had no idea that my uncle had taken his own life the night before.
Nevertheless, seemingly out of nowhere, her last words were: “I’m going to see my son now.”
I got goosebumps when I heard her say those words. Did she know somehow? Or maybe had another deceased son that no one ever knew about?
Another patient that a nurse was looking after seemingly had the same foresight. She got goosebumps the next day when she learned the truth.
Reddit/masterminds
One Last Compliment
I’m a nurse, and I was previously working at an assisted living community in the dementia and Alzheimer’s unit. My very favorite patient had been declining pretty steadily, so I was checking on him very frequently. We would have long chats and joke around with each other, but in the last two weeks of his life, he stopped talking completely.
He didn’t really acknowledge the conversation directed at him at all. I finished my medication rounds for the evening, so I went to see him before I left. I told him I was leaving for the night and that I’d see him the following day. As soon as I said that, he immediately looked me in the eyes, smiled so genuinely, and calmly said, “You look like an angel.”
I thought it was so sweet because he had not seemed lucid in several weeks. But then I found out the disturbing truth. He passed the next morning. It really messed with me.
Sometimes when we think that loved ones aren’t lucid, it seems that they actually were the whole time, as this next Redditor found out.
Reddit/abstract
It Was Par for the Course
When my grandmother was taken off of life support, my father and grandfather stayed with her that night in the hospital. They wanted to be with her for her final moments.
At around 7 AM, my father left the room to go get breakfast. My grandmother woke up, looked at my grandfather, and said, “Buy the new golf clubs. I love you,” and passed.
He and my father had been talking about how my grandfather’s golf clubs were more than 20 years old, and he was thinking about a new set. My grandmother hadn’t been lucid and had barely been conscious for a week at that point.
It seems a lot of the weirdest final words are often cryptic phrases with the heavy weight of foreshadowing, just like this next story.
Reddit/Fight_the_bs
A Warning to the Wise
My grandfather looked up at me from his deathbed and said the following cryptic message: “July 21st, 2016. Don’t do it”. Then, he didn’t say a thing for about two hours, after which he passed. Everyone always has a lot of questions when they hear this story, so I better tell you guys how it all went down. Some people go really crazy over this story when they hear it.
No, my grandfather wasn’t insane. He was an awesome, fully sane person. He just passed from lung cancer. No one knew he was going to pass that day, but he just called my family over and requested to see us. We didn’t have anything to do, so we went. He was at his little trailer. I remember it all perfectly. We went over there, and he was in his bed.
He asked to speak to me alone and for everyone else to stay behind. I went into his room. He looked at me. He was so happy to see me. I was not sure why, but he was happy, so I was cool with it. He told me to come closer. He grabbed my hand with a cold, fragile grip and then looked me straight in the eye. His smile was completely wiped at this point, and he spoke in a low tone.
“Listen to me. July 21st, 2016. Don’t do it”. Then, he just sat there like he was sad. So I left the room after about thirty minutes of awkward silence. My family and I sat there for two hours, waiting around, listening to him fidget in his bed. We heard all the creeks his bed made, and then it all stopped. So I went in to check on him.
It was 7:36 PM. He was in his bed, with wet marks under his eyes from crying. He was no longer alive.
Sometimes even strange words come out of lucid mouths. Whether they’re true or not is up to the listener.
Reddit/cheats47
Those Hollywood Nights
I worked in a nursing home for about a decade doing hospice, rehab, and all kinds of long-term care. I had a fellow who had worked at the Army Film Unit in Los Angeles during active combat. When it looked like he wasn’t going to make it through the night, I sat with him and just talked. He was remarkably lucid the entire time.
He told me that he had been present at the “Zoot Suit Riots.” He even admitted to taking a man’s life, but he was never prosecuted.
I never could find any evidence of anyone having been slain during those five days in LA when the riots took place. But that wasn’t all. He also told me about getting frisky with Rosemary Clooney in a bar on Sunset.
Sometimes the last words don’t have to be profound to make an impact. One relative on their deathbed cleared up a misconception about her.
Reddit/acghost333
She Didn’t Give a Hoot
My great-grandmother lived a very long and interesting life. She was in her 20s during the great depression. She had a wild streak from those days that we don’t know much about, to the point that we actually don’t know our great-grandfather’s name. We only know the husband she took later. Over the course of her nearly 100-year life, she had collected owls.
She had thousands of owl figurines and doodads, literally. She had clocks, wall hangings, potholders, lamps, stained glass art, salt shakers, and more little figurines than you could imagine, all depicting owls. We all wondered what the importance of the owls was. She never talked about them. We just all knew that she loved owls.
When she was nearing the end, at the age of 98 or 99, and the doctors said she had mere days left, my grandparents went and talked to her. They asked her if she had anything she wanted to share or ask before she went. She thought for a moment, then said something that changed our whole idea of her: “I never understood the owls.”
Yep, it turned out she didn’t really give a darn about owls. From what we could piece together, sometime in the 40s or 50s, perhaps, she bought either a trivet or a set of salt/pepper shakers that were owls. Then someone got her the other. Those were the oldest owl things anyone could remember. From there, someone got her an owl to match, probably a potholder or a placemat.
Then, all of a sudden, her kitchen was owl themed. From there, it snowballed. The owls flowed in, baffling her for 60 years, eventually taking over the bulk of her personal belongings.
Here are another person’s final words that weren’t profound. But despite her pain, she alleviated the dark feelings with humor.
Reddit/Fearlessleader85
She Had Enough of the Stuff
My dad loved small-town auctions. Over the years, he had collected all those boxes of stuff that would go to the lowest bidder. He amassed quite a collection, filling the garage and a workshop out back.
He always promised my mom that he would sell it all someday in some big garage sale or auction of his own. One day, my mom’s cancer returned, and the doctors told us this time it wasn’t a fair fight.
Two weeks before she passed, I was sitting with her in the hospital. We had run out of things to talk about. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the pain, and said, “Thank God, at least I won’t have to deal with your dad’s stuff.” My mom and I just burst out laughing.
Another set of last words that were definitely not something important. But they were darn funny.
Reddit/tangcameo
Forget Me Not
I’m not a doctor or nurse, and the person in question wasn’t exactly a patient. It was my elderly grandpa, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. We were getting him situated in bed, and he had bad knees. We accidentally bent it wrong at one point, and he obviously didn’t like the way it felt. He angrily said, “IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN, I’LL PUNCH YOU IN THE NUTS!”
I chuckled and let him go to bed. His blood pressure soon dropped, and he passed peacefully in his sleep. He was a hilarious guy overall, and so it was fitting that his life came to an end with one of his most ridiculous sentences ever as his last words. Here are some other examples of cute and funny stuff he has said and done over the years.
As I mentioned, he had Alzheimer’s disease, so one of his biggest quirks was saying extremely aggressive things without any awareness of who he was talking to or what the situation was. One day, I left my cell phone on the picnic table, and he snagged it as a joke. But he then forgot that he had done so. When I realized that it was missing, I was getting super pissed, thinking that someone had swiped it.
We decided to call it and see if we could hear it ringing. Naturally, we immediately heard it ringing from grandpa’s pocket. He pulled it out of his pocket when it started to vibrate, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. That was when we all put two and two together and realized what had happened. It was a classic Grandpa moment, so I didn’t mind.
Another time, he asked me what I was going to school for. I told him I was studying nursing, and he replied, “I knew you looked like a wimp!” Such an unnecessarily aggressive and nonsensical reply could only have come from this individual. Also, he used to always make this joke before he started slipping, where he would stir his coffee and then burn your arm with the spoon as a joke.
Well, once he started to slip, he would forget that he had just done it. So every three minutes or so while you sat next to him, he would sneakily burn your arm over and over again until you had red marks all the way up and down your entire arm. And he would chuckle each and every time he did it as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen and no one had seen it coming. My brother ended up putting a spoon in his suit jacket at the funeral, and we both laughed.
Even paramedics have heard a couple of lasting final words that really stick with them, as this next Redditor knows all too well.
Reddit/GoodLuck
Too Many To Keep Track Of
Firefighters and paramedics are here. Thanks to these jobs, I’ve seen way more than my fair share of active passings over the years. Many of these passings involved creepy, strange, or eerie last words coming from the patients.
But this one stuck with me. A 36-year-old that we coded last week waited till he was on his last conscious breath.
Then he said, “I’m going down, guys. I’m going down”. He went into V-fib and didn’t come back out of it. I also had a man once in the emergency room who coded, and we shocked him and got a rhythm back. He then woke up and asked if he had passed.
We told him that he temporarily had. Then he started crying and said he had just seen the face of God.
Our next Redditor heard the story of the strangest dream. They may very well have been her grandfather’s last words from beyond the grave.
Reddit/xts2500
A Cross-Dimensional Conversation
This isn’t technically about last words per se, but very much related. One night, I was having a few quiet drinks with a friend and some of his friends that I didn’t really know. I ended up having a conversation with this girl who told me a pretty creepy story about something that had just happened to her recently. It started off with her having a dream, but it turned into a living nightmare.
She had it the night before about her grandad, who had already passed about a year earlier. In the dream, her grandad was sitting on her bed, telling her to “Call Grandma and tell her not to do it. You must not let her do it!” She had no idea what he was talking about. She woke up the next morning, dropped her boyfriend off at work, and then came home.
She then dozed off back to sleep for a little bit. Two hours later, her mother phoned her to say that grandma had just hung herself. The girl was on the verge of tears when she told me this, and it still gives me goosebumps to this day. Even while I’m writing this, I can hardly contain my emotions.
Sometimes people briefly come back from cardiac arrest and say exactly what they saw. This often spooks those around them.
Reddit/versace_can_opener
It Was Lights Out for Grandma
My friend Tom had a grandma who was a real hippy. She had traveled all over the world with three young boys in the 60s.
My friend was also a total hippy himself as a teenager and doted on his grandma with all his heart. They spoke about everything in life. At a ripe old age, she lay on her deathbed in a hospital and flatlined with her sons around her.
But she wasn’t actually decreased. A few moments later, she let out a gasp and said, “Tell Tom I never saw the light,” and took her last breath.
This next set of last words was just apologetic. It wasn’t profound, but it still made our next Redditor cry.
Reddit/silquetoast
His Words Made Me Cry
I was a scrub nurse. My job was to assist the surgeon during surgeries. I was preparing an elderly patient for a pretty high-risk surgery. There was a good chance he was going to be fine, but there was also a decent chance things were going to go south, and he knew that. While the CRNA was doing her thing, getting the anesthesia ready, I was standing next to the patient going over his chart and the signed releases.
Then, he said to me, “I need you to tell my wife I’m sorry for all the times I raised my voice at her. There weren’t many times. But right now, I wish there weren’t any”. That was the first time I ever got choked up at the bedside. I so badly wanted to tell him everything was going to be okay, but no one knew if it was going to be.
So, I said back to him, “I’ll do anything you need me to, but right now, let’s think about some happy memories before you go under.” I asked him to tell me about his and his wife’s first date. Once he was under, I excused myself before scrubbing in to stop myself from crying.
Sometimes all last words need to be are ones that leave a smile on a loved one’s face. This is exactly what happened to our next Redditor.
Reddit/hey_now111
Spending Spree
My friend’s grandpa was always known to be a loving but stern man. He used to drink and sleep a lot.
When the end was near, he asked my friend to come closer. He told him something that left a smile on his face: “I’ve left a lot of money to you. Life’s not worth it. Spend it all. Spend it all on ladies of the night and illicit substances”.
He passed away about a week later. I don’t know if he did spend it on what his grandpa said, but he did spend it.
The next Redditor had their grandmother regain her senses near the end. Despite her dementia, her final words were fully comprehensible.
Reddit/Naranjo96
Dear John
My grandma suffered from dementia for many years before she passed. It got so bad she didn’t remember who any of her family were and would barricade herself in her home because she was scared of everyone. She even forgot she smoked and would find her smokes months later after she forgot where they were and claimed she was desperate for one.
The only memories she had left at the end were of her sister being able to play the piano beautifully and that her husband—her childhood sweetheart—was gone, but she didn’t know where. He had passed some time earlier. She spent her days waiting for him to come home from wherever he was. She would say, “My John will be home soon.”
Or someone would walk past the window, and she would do a double-take and say, “Thought that was my John.” It was heartbreaking watching her deteriorate until she was near the end, unaware of anything or anyone. I went to say my goodbyes to her in the hospital, and she held my hand and told me how much she loved me.
But then she said how she was ready to go be with John now. At that moment, she remembered who I was, what was happening to her, and that her husband, my grandad, was gone already. Not long after that, she closed her eyes forever.
Sometimes when people are about to go. They can claim that they see the light or angels coming for them. This next story is heartbreaking.
Reddit/UTGPodcast
And the Angels Sing
This family that I know lost their infant son to cancer when he was only three years old. It was a horrible and very sad story, and I can’t even imagine how much pain these people have gone through.
His last words on this earth were: “Mama, papa, I see them. The angels!” He said this, and then he immediately went to sleep.
His parents held him tight until he passed. It’s probably the saddest story I’ve ever heard.
Sometimes last words can lead to something incredible. Our next Redditor’s grandfather’s last words led them to an amazing secret.
Reddit/turbine
He Had a Tale To Tell
Around the time my grandfather was really declining, he started making strange remarks about a group of people who we were unfamiliar with. He was telling us a lot of battle stories, as well as the word “Kitchens” over and over. He started talking about “Kitchens,” and we just thought it was ramblings and nonsense. After he passed, we cleaned out his house.
While we did this, we came upon an old family book that was handwritten by his grandfather. Its contents stunned us. It was about the Denver bootleggers, focusing on a certain character who managed to run one of the bigger bootlegging operations in the area during the Prohibition era. Then, we came across some pictures in a box with a bunch of pins and a sash that was from the Masons.
The pictures all had my grandfather and his father posing with family members, as well as a random old guy dressed in what can only be described as a 1940s-era suit and hat that made him look like an old-school bandit. We then found out that there was a house that my aunt used to go to when she was a very young child that was supposedly owned by that old man in the photos.
When I did some scoping on the property, it did not have a registered number on the street it resided on. Instead, it was registered as an address that was one block over. The house had no real address, and it was owned by a company that was run by some guy that my aunt and mom knew to be related to us in some way, shape, or form.
At this point, we believed that “Kitchens” was actually a pseudonym for someone my grandfather was associated with within the Masons. This “Kitchens” fellow may be the man in the photos, as well as the inspiration for the main character in the handwritten book we found buried in the closet.
People with dementia often say the strangest things. Our next Redditor just learned to play along.
Reddit/T-Ball_S
She Was a Wild Thing
One of the most challenging moments I had was with a patient—a woman in her 80s—who had advanced dementia and was trying to recover from a severe bed sore that had gone septic. She often confused me with her second husband because, according to her daughter, I looked a lot like him.
The patient would often talk about “our” kinky exploits—including swinging and partner swapping—as well as very wild “adventures.” I had given up on trying to tell her I was not her husband because it just confused her and upset her, so I learned to play along.
She talked to me often about “our” children and other family members, as well as many other tamer adventures she had with her husband. It made her happy to talk about it, and she often left me with a smile.
Sometimes people who know it’s their time still try to think of making their family’s life easier. That’s exactly what happened in this next story.
Reddit/Hobie642
The Days of the Week
I don’t care that I’m not a nurse. This was said by my dad to the nurse as he was passing. So close enough as far as I’m concerned. Backstory: my dad had MS. He’d had it since he was 18 years old. He was diagnosed when he was twenty. He married my mom at 24, had me at 29, and passed just fifteen days short of turning 45.
Six months before that, he was put in hospice. He and my mom were discussing funeral arrangements, and my mom jokingly said, “You know, Tim, the best thing you could do would be to pass on a Wednesday. That way, we can have the body prepared on Thursday, the viewing on Friday, and the memorial on Saturday, so that more people can come.”
The morning we got the call that it was time, my mom, two sisters, and I was about five minutes too late. After we said our goodbyes, the nurse pulled my mom aside and asked if that day had any significance. It wasn’t even 6:00 in the morning yet, so our mom didn’t even know what day it was, much less whether it was important. The nurse tells her it’s May 21st.
No, nothing was coming to mind. The nurse told her that the previous day, he kept asking what day it was, and they’d tell him it was the 20th. He’d look irritated but accept it. That morning, he asked what day it was, and they said, “It’s Wednesday, May 21st”. That was when he smiled, squeezed his favorite nurse’s hand, and was gone almost immediately.
It was Memorial Day weekend, and we did just as he and my mom had planned. And despite many friends being out of town for a holiday, we had over 250 people show up at the memorial service for him, overflowing the tiny church more than it had ever been filled. On his final day, he was trying to make things easier for our family. I miss him.
One patient, on their final night, told their caretaker something they’d kept to themselves for years. Just before they passed, they made a tragic confession.
Reddit/Ashkela
Homesick
In my first year as a nurse, I worked in palliative care. I had a patient who was 28 years old and lost her battle with cancer. She moved from Canada to be with her boyfriend, who left her a year after moving.
We weren’t expecting her to deteriorate so fast. I held her hand as she passed alone without her family or friends. Right before she passed, she made a tragic confession.
She told me she wished she had never left Canada and cried. Her family was overseas and couldn’t make it in time.
Here’s another person who came back from cardiac arrest and had some thoughts on what she saw in the afterlife. It definitely left an impression on our Redditor.
Reddit/Roaming_Pie
Cruising Down the River
Massage therapist here. It was my first final massage, although they are called different things in different places, so I’m not sure everyone will know what that means. Regardless, my first time was with this little old lady that was known to speak her mind. She was as sweet as they come but would let you have it if she felt there was any reason to.
I was giving her a massage with a soundtrack that imitated a cruise line since going on cruises was her passion in life. She was breathing short, ragged breaths. After a while, she simply passed on, and I called for our house doctor to come and deal with the situation. Her pulse was checked and was found to be nonexistent. But what happened next shocked all of us.
About five minutes later, as the family was talking to us and dealing with her passing, she suddenly started breathing again, leaned up, and said: “Oh God, they’re so freaking happy up there!” Before we even had a chance to react to this development, she passed all over again. It was definitely a strange and memorable experience.
Another old lady that was passing on decided to tell her caretaker her secret. She would spill everything.
Reddit/Aedamus
Straight From the Horse’s Mouth
I had a woman who was over 100 years old tell me she had been badly tormented by her first husband. She was stuck in the marriage because of the culture at that time.
He’d been thrown from a horse—that he’d also been very mean to—and kicked several times. She ignored his cries for help and let him perish.
She said she had never told anyone about it, but she felt guilty about it for over 80 years and could still hear him screaming for help. It was terrifying.
One patient’s last set of words was strange, to say the least. She definitely wasn’t speaking to the caregiver.
Reddit/Hobie642
Keeping the Guests Happy
I work as a palliative care nurse at a local hospital. One time, my patient was slipping in and out of consciousness and would mumble words, but you couldn’t understand what she was trying to say.
During her last few minutes of life, suddenly, she opened her eyes widely and looked right at me, fully alert. I suddenly gave her my full and undivided attention. In a fully serious tone, she said, “Thank you for coming. I am sorry, but I am going to be poor company. I love you”.
All I could do was kiss her forehead and tell her that I loved her too. She passed later that same day, not too long after this incident. I am not sure who she thought was standing there, but I am pretty sure it wasn’t me.
Our next Redditor’s great-grandmother had some strange last words. But nobody knew at the time that it was a premonition.
Reddit/Lastredditname
She Knew Something Was Up
When my great-grandma was on her last legs, she was convinced that my mom was having a baby. She wanted to know if it was a girl or a boy, but this is where it gets weird.
My mom replied by telling her that she was not pregnant. After asking the same to my aunt, she said, “Oh, guess I was wrong.”
Here’s where it gets unsettling. Exactly nine months later, I was born.
The next person that passed told their caretaker that they could see someone in the room. Let’s just hope that it was someone they liked.
Reddit/echosoftheflower
Two of a Kind
I work in oncology and in hospice care. If any of you have ever worked in the medical field, then you’ll know that passings often seem to happen in groups of three. I’m not even joking. It just always seems to be the case. This one lady was going to be our second passing of the evening. I was sitting with her while her family took a break.
She kept on looking at the corner chair where no one was sitting. I asked her what she was looking at, and she said, “Oh, it’s just Charlie! He’s waiting for me. We’re going to go together.”
She never said another word and passed shortly after. It may have seemed like a normal thing because many people “see things” before they pass, but here’s the detail that unlocks it all: Charlie was patient number one who had passed earlier in the shift.
The next Redditor’s Nan was on her final legs and was mostly unresponsive. But she woke up immediately with one key phrase.
Reddit/Alyss003
Little Darling
My nanny always called people “my darling.” It was kind of her thing. She was lying in her bed at the hospice facility, pretty unresponsive to anything anyone was saying save for a few head nods when asked if she needed more meds.
I was leaving to head back to my university soon, and I kind of had a feeling that it would be the last time I ever saw her alive. I held her hand and told her I was leaving, and she didn’t say anything. I teared up a bit and just kind of laid my head over on her hands and just said, “I love you, Nanny.” To my shock, she immediately replied. “I love you too, baby darlin’.”
As soon as I got to school that night, I sat down at my desk, and my mom called to tell me that she had passed. I couldn’t have asked for a better last conversation with her.
Another Redditor experienced their grandfather having full control of his senses even though he had Alzheimer’s. He had some wonderful parting words.
Reddit/Bitch_Cakes
He Saw the End Clear as Day
One day, the whole family was with my grandparents. My grandpa had Alzheimer’s, and we were practicing the piano together when he suddenly said something out of nowhere.
He said, “I’m going to die soon, but it’s so nice that we gathered here today and are able to see each other one last time.” I just smiled and said I would definitely come back next Sunday, and he didn’t have to worry.
My grandfather had a cerebral hemorrhage the next day and went into a coma. He was in a coma for four days before he would finally leave this earth. I believe that on that particular day, he knew for one last time who he really was, who we were, and that his end was coming soon.
Our next set of last words was of regret. It was a father that wished his son could know how he really felt.
Reddit/Figgdi69
It Was All Hard To Accept
My friend had a patient who was hours from the end. He told her, “The only thing I regret in life is not telling my baby boy that I accept him.”
It didn’t hit hard until she was told that the patient’s son was a transgender male. Sadly, the man lost his life at just 50 years old to terminal cancer.
In the end, he never got a chance to tell his son that. I just hope his son knew, regardless.
Another set of last words led to a grandchild learning the startling truth. It was about a child who had been given up for adoption.
Reddit/JaytheDumbass69
Her Confusion Eventually Led to the Truth
A couple of days before my grandmother passed, she was really confused. She talked about my mother having a child a year or so after my own birth who was given up for adoption.
She was talking about how sad and horrible this was and that I deserved to know. After my grandmother passed, I confronted my mom about it, who denied it, and I truly believed her.
A couple of months later, I found out the sad truth. My grandmother was the one who had put up a child for adoption. It was a baby girl who was born between my mother and aunt.
To protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
Reddit/Thornbeach
