24. chakakat

I was once taking care of a dying man in his home. Coincidentally his wife was in the hospital also dying, making it a very sad time for the family. The man was feverish at night and would wake up confused and babbling at times. They had a freezer of soup the wife had made when she was well and the man was eating the last of it in his last days, but I don’t think he even realized.

One night he told me a story of when he was in the war (I’m sorry I don’t know which.) A paratrooper from the other side had landed in his territory and his parachute was caught in a tree. Against orders, when no one was around, he cut the man down and let him free. He asked the paratrooper to fire his gun when he was safe on the other side and let him run away, but was saddened to have never heard a shot. The man broke down telling me this and told me how he thought of it often and hoped the man had made it. He had never told anyone else. The man passed away a couple of days later. I’ve held this story close since.

25. GrooveAssassin

My dad’s a doctor and has a great “last words” story.

Back in the day, he was working/training for his residency at a nursing home. This particular day, he was working the late shift. At the nursing home, there was an elderly, short-statured man named Mr. Williams.

One night, around midnight, Mr. Williams left his room and walked down the long hallway until my dad found him. He was dressed in khaki pants and a button-down shirt and tie, as if he were heading out for the night or something. My dad asked him what he was doing, and why he was dressed up so nicely. Mr. Williams responded, “I’m meeting up with my wife tonight.” However his wife had passed away seven years before that. He seemed to be deranged and really out of it, obviously. My dad and another physician brought Mr. Williams back to his room, and helped him get back into bed.

Around three hours later, my dad sees a senior medical director signing some documents, talking to three other doctors around him. He was curious as to what the commotion was, so he went over to talk. He asks the senior director what the papers were, and he replied: “Mr. Williams’s death certificate…”

26. excio

A daily occurrence during passing period was to jump from one concrete table to the one parallel next to it. After a few weeks of jumping every day the school had the janitor move it back a couple of feet. This was seen as a challenge instead of making us not want to do so. So my friend was the first to try. The point of the game was to make it from the table top to the opposite table top. In this case he didn’t make it, he slipped on the part of the bench you sit on and crushed his throat. His wind pipe was completely broken and both sides were separated and pushed to opposite sides of the throat. Ill never forget the words he tried to mouth to me. “I can’t breathe.”

I have nightmares of that now. Its been almost 9 years. And this is the first time I have actually been able to tell people what happened.