QOTD: Last words with a loved one.

QOTD: If someone you care about is on their death bed.. what do you say to them? Do you say anything? How? Why? What do you do with the knowledge that in a short amount of time, they will be gone?

"My Dad passed away without warning when I was a freshman in college. I've had a lot of discussions with people since then about what is harder to handle -- something like that, or watching a slow deterioration like cancer. I still think it might be kinda selfish, but I think you're lucky if you have the chance to say goodbye that I didn't have. 

My Father and I weren't on good terms. I never forgave him for a lot of things from my childhood years. The last few years of his life, he was a really great man. He showed me that people can change. But I never got to tell him that. That has been unbearably hard to deal with for a lot of years now. 

So what I would tell anyone, faced with this situation: Say the hard things. This is your only chance to. I don't know how you say it, or even what to say. But I can speak for the why. Say the hard things and try with all your being to resolve all those things that in the following years will cease to be important. Say the hard things, because even having the chance to is a blessing."

-P. D.

"I think that the best thing to do is talk about it, maybe not in length, but it certainly isn't something that can be ignored. It is better to make sure that everyone understands what is happening. Then I think once that is taken care of, the best thing is to just talk and love and be there and try and be happy for the person so that they aren't surrounded in gloom for the last part of their life. We talked to my grandpa about old times and rehashed old stories a lot because at the end people tend to reflect back. That's what I think."

-K. G.

"I don't really know how to answer that only because my grandma died and I didn't get to say goodbye to her I don't even know what I would have said if I got to say good bye to be honest. great question. (: "

-B. S.

"I think that I would try to fit in how much that I love them, how wonderful I thought they were, and if there were any regrets or wrongs, I would apologize to them. I kind of got to do this for my dad... but he wasn't conscious... I deeply, deeply wish that he was."

-H. Z.

This one was close to home. A fear friend of mine who I used to work with has leukemia for the last time. They were the type who didn't want to sit at home all day waiting for the 'four years' they had left to go by, so they worked. Well, on this day, they came up to work to say goodbye to everyone. I stared at him speechless. Seriously. No words came to my mind, though I had thousands to say.

And now, I will never have another opportunity.