[Reposted]

   Newscasters offering their epitaphs on 2020 also reference the famous who have left us. One's final words always intrigue. Ever since I was a kid I have often asked others what they would like their final words to be.   

  "As she lay dying, my mother spoke four words that changed my life," Harold Poneman shared with me forty years ago. Dr. Poneman was not only Medical Director at the first hospital I led but became a great friend. 

   "She said, 'What fools we are,'" he laughed. "She was right, don't you think?" 

   Caregivers, particularly in hospices, are often witnesses to final utterances & could write books about what they have heard. 

   But, executioners are witnesses as well because of the ritual invitation to prisoners to offer their last words. Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale used his final breaths to deliver a legendary speech to his British captors, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." 

    Michelangelo ended his life with four words, "I am still learning." Steve Jobs engaged just two, "Oh Wow." (repeated three times.) And so did Goethe, "More light."

   On his deathbed, Comedian W.C. Fields was asked why he was reading the Bible. "I'm looking for loopholes," he joked. 

   Ms. Poneman's wisdom rings in my ears when I find myself conjuring my own last words. Why would anyone care?  Nevertheless, I dreamt up my own: "I went after too much & got it." 

   I like my wife's answer better. "Thank you," she said. I would just say "thank you" because I have had so much. 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph, "Clock Without Hands" by Erie, 2015