Final Words...

I saw a news headline a few weeks ago about a Russian plane that went down after some technical troubles.  According to the report, the last word the pilot said was “circle.”  Beyond the obvious tragedy, I was surprised that this story stuck with me for several days.  The thing that intrigued me the most was the concept of a person’s last words.  What will my own last words be?  Will they be eloquent?  Ordinary?  Filled with meaning?  Filled with humor?  I really hope it’s something worth repeating. 

I became curious about other last words, and found some good ones.  Here they are:

·         “We are running on line north and south.”  Amelia Earhart made this final statement during her fateful flight over the Pacific Ocean. 

·         “It's very beautiful over there.”  Thomas Edison reportedly said this to his wife just before his death.  It is apparently unclear if he was speaking about a vision he was having of Heaven, or if he was referring to the view from his window.

·         “Goodnight my kitten.” Ernest Hemingway’s final words to his wife.  Sweet words spoken by a man who wrote one of my favorite books:  The Old Man and the Sea.  Sadly, he committed suicide, which makes these words bittersweet.

·         “This is funny.”  According to history, Doc Holliday spoke these words in reaction to irony.  He had expected to die a manly death, but instead died of tuberculosis.  His boots were taken off and he was reportedly examining his bootless feet.

·         “Well, I've had a happy life.”  English writer and literary critic William Hazlitt said these simple, yet profound words.  I rather like them.

·         “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”  Crowfoot, 1890.  This chief of the Blackfoot First Nation tribe in Canada said these words.  They are poetic, poignant, and profound.  Man’s life is fleeting, but it is also beautiful.

·         “Happy.”  Italian painter and architect Raphael seems to have summed it all up in one, single word. 

·         “The best of all is: God is with us.” Methodist founder and English preacher John Wesley said these very true words.

·         “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you.”  The final words of Mother Teresa speak to what was first in her life as seen through her actions.

This little sampling of final words has me pondering…what shall I say?  I want my final words to be reflective of what is most important and meaningful in my life.  I think I should start planning now.  I’m not a very pithy or humorous person, so I’m going to have to lean towards poetic words filled with imagery and symbolism.  All week I’ve tried to figure out what my final word (singular) would be, but let’s face it, I’m a girl of many words.  So, like any good teacher, I plan to craft a final sentence.  I may have to edit it several times over the years, polish up the diction and punctuation, but if I start now, I might have something pretty profound when the time comes.

What might your imagined final words reveal about you?