How will you use your last few breaths? Some people stay silent at the end of their lives, others express love or forgiveness. Then there are those who opt to go out with a bang, uttering words that nobody around them expected to hear.
Knowing you're in your final moments on earth can trigger all sorts of emotions: Fear, relief, sadness, anger and of course, regret. You might think of words left unsaid, deeds left undone, or the secrets you kept hidden until you couldn't any longer. Someone asked, "What is the most disturbing [end-of-life] confession you've heard?" and more than 2,000 ghosts suddenly appeared.
From massive family secrets to pure criminal acts, many of the responses were unsettling, to say the least. Others were heart-breaking and a few were even funny. Bored Panda has put together a list of the best, for anyone who needs a jump-start to get their house in order before it's too late. We also explore the top regrets that people have before passing away. You'll find that info between the images.
#41
Near-d***h bed. My father is and was horribly a*****e, and before I cut contact with him a while back he’d had a stroke or some kind of medical emergency overseas while visiting family. Never figured out exactly what it was but he was in a coma for a while and by the time he got home it took over a year in rehab to get him speaking and moving around again. My mom had been able to go over there for a week or so to try and figure out how to get him home, but I ended up having a breakdown from stress and she had to come back to work anyway so she flew back home.
It took another couple months for him to stabilize enough that he could come back. When he got home he briefly had a period of coherence before he started declining again, and I remember him squeezing my hand in the hospital, looking me in the eyes, and saying “it’s your fault she abandoned me there. You k****d me.” He went back under and it took another week for him to come out of the coma. We really thought his last words were gonna be that. And honestly if they had been his last words it would have been fine because then he wouldn’t have tried to k**l me a few years later. I’m glad I won’t be around to hear his actual last words.
It took another couple months for him to stabilize enough that he could come back. When he got home he briefly had a period of coherence before he started declining again, and I remember him squeezing my hand in the hospital, looking me in the eyes, and saying “it’s your fault she abandoned me there. You k****d me.” He went back under and it took another week for him to come out of the coma. We really thought his last words were gonna be that. And honestly if they had been his last words it would have been fine because then he wouldn’t have tried to k**l me a few years later. I’m glad I won’t be around to hear his actual last words.
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7points
#42
This is the opposite of disturbing, but when my grandfather was dying, he confessed to my dad that he was his best friend.
My dad had grown up in a broken home, raised mostly by his mother after an extremely messy divorce due to my grandfather’s violent alcoholism. For the first decade or so of his life, my dad and his father had been extremely close. But after the divorce, my grandfather remarried a woman who had kids of her own, and my dad and his siblings suddenly became background characters in his new life. To his credit, my grandfather did end up getting sober, and became a very involved husband and parent for his second wife and her kids. He avidly supported their dreams and goals, and went out of his way to ensure that they felt seen and loved. But that left my dad feeling like the discarded child for a long time, and he resented the fact that his father could give his new family everything they’d never had, while he and his siblings had been left behind with a mother who did not know how to cope with the anger and hurt from her marriage falling apart.
After my grandfather got sober when my dad was an adult, he made a conscious effort to rebuild that relationship. They both worked in similar fields for a living, so they began collaborating on projects at my grandfather’s home and spending a lot more time together. When my dad married my mom and had kids of his own, my grandfather, his wife, and her children were always a big part of our lives. Every week, my dad would bring me to my grandparents house for a visit, and I absolutely adored getting to see the bond that the two of them shared.
Nevertheless, my dad would have never thought that my grandfather considered him to be his best friend. After all, my grandfather had been married to his wife for almost 50 years, he’d gotten sober for her, he’d rebuilt his entire life for her, and he was a deeply devoted partner who shared all her passions and had truly found his other half. But when my dad disagreed and pointed out that his wife was his best friend, my grandfather shook his head and said “No, she’s not. You are.”
And my dad has kept that secret from my grandma ever since.
My dad had grown up in a broken home, raised mostly by his mother after an extremely messy divorce due to my grandfather’s violent alcoholism. For the first decade or so of his life, my dad and his father had been extremely close. But after the divorce, my grandfather remarried a woman who had kids of her own, and my dad and his siblings suddenly became background characters in his new life. To his credit, my grandfather did end up getting sober, and became a very involved husband and parent for his second wife and her kids. He avidly supported their dreams and goals, and went out of his way to ensure that they felt seen and loved. But that left my dad feeling like the discarded child for a long time, and he resented the fact that his father could give his new family everything they’d never had, while he and his siblings had been left behind with a mother who did not know how to cope with the anger and hurt from her marriage falling apart.
After my grandfather got sober when my dad was an adult, he made a conscious effort to rebuild that relationship. They both worked in similar fields for a living, so they began collaborating on projects at my grandfather’s home and spending a lot more time together. When my dad married my mom and had kids of his own, my grandfather, his wife, and her children were always a big part of our lives. Every week, my dad would bring me to my grandparents house for a visit, and I absolutely adored getting to see the bond that the two of them shared.
Nevertheless, my dad would have never thought that my grandfather considered him to be his best friend. After all, my grandfather had been married to his wife for almost 50 years, he’d gotten sober for her, he’d rebuilt his entire life for her, and he was a deeply devoted partner who shared all her passions and had truly found his other half. But when my dad disagreed and pointed out that his wife was his best friend, my grandfather shook his head and said “No, she’s not. You are.”
And my dad has kept that secret from my grandma ever since.
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6points
#43
I see a lot of not quite confessions here, so I'll share.
The last time that I spoke to my father he was crying. He had been fighting various health issue for 25 years, including lymphoma which had twice gone into remission. Then he got sick with a cold or flu... and his body just couldn't fight anymore.
He was crying and trying his best to be coherent on the phone with me as he apologized for dying. The only words I could make out, which he repeated a few times were, "I'm so sorry, I can't anymore. I can't fight anymore". I did my best to tell him he'd been fighting so long, it was all okay - I was okay and my sister was okay. He was about 1,000 miles away and I couldn't fly to him, I had to drive. I got to the VA hospital 20 minutes after he was gone.
My father may well have been the best man I've ever known.
The last time that I spoke to my father he was crying. He had been fighting various health issue for 25 years, including lymphoma which had twice gone into remission. Then he got sick with a cold or flu... and his body just couldn't fight anymore.
He was crying and trying his best to be coherent on the phone with me as he apologized for dying. The only words I could make out, which he repeated a few times were, "I'm so sorry, I can't anymore. I can't fight anymore". I did my best to tell him he'd been fighting so long, it was all okay - I was okay and my sister was okay. He was about 1,000 miles away and I couldn't fly to him, I had to drive. I got to the VA hospital 20 minutes after he was gone.
My father may well have been the best man I've ever known.
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6points
#44
When my mum was in hospital, riddled with cancer, I said to her "I know I'm not the daughter you wanted, but I'm the one you got, so shall we talk about it?" And she replied, "I know why you are the way you are" but wouldn't elaborate and pretended to be asleep.
Since she died, I've had dreams where she's trying to tell me something but it's muffled or like she's speaking under water and gets annoyed with me that I can't make out what she's saying.
Since she died, I've had dreams where she's trying to tell me something but it's muffled or like she's speaking under water and gets annoyed with me that I can't make out what she's saying.
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6points
#45
My grandma is an er doctor and she had a patient who coded. He woke up screaming saying he was in hell and wanted to confess to drowning his kid in the 70s and the kid was buried underneath the family pond that they built on top of it.
Grandma submitted a report about this but she says you never know if these people are on d***s or telling the truth. She does believe he was somewhere since our soul don’t stay on earth while patients code (she said over 45 years of medical practice she had a lot of patients tell her that we floated above you and saw everything you guys were doing to their body then went up or down - I assume heaven or hell - so she does believe souls float and go somewhere since it seems to be common reoccurrence).
Idk if she believed his story but I know this incident deeply disturbed her because she still talks about the guy who grabbed her arm admitting that and had to get hospital security because he wouldn’t let go.
Grandma submitted a report about this but she says you never know if these people are on d***s or telling the truth. She does believe he was somewhere since our soul don’t stay on earth while patients code (she said over 45 years of medical practice she had a lot of patients tell her that we floated above you and saw everything you guys were doing to their body then went up or down - I assume heaven or hell - so she does believe souls float and go somewhere since it seems to be common reoccurrence).
Idk if she believed his story but I know this incident deeply disturbed her because she still talks about the guy who grabbed her arm admitting that and had to get hospital security because he wouldn’t let go.
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5points
#46
I used to be nurse and once we had a patient that had aggressive late stage lung cancer and was actively dying. We knew he had been prison several times and, before cancer took his strenght, was considered really dangerous.
I was giving him his pain medication and when he suddenly said something like ”I still heard the sounds my friends skull made when I splitted it open with hammer. Have you ever k****d anyone? I have used every d**g on earth but there is no better high than k*****g someone and never getting caught. Shame that I get to experience that only once”.
He never spoke to me anything after that and died day or two later.
I was giving him his pain medication and when he suddenly said something like ”I still heard the sounds my friends skull made when I splitted it open with hammer. Have you ever k****d anyone? I have used every d**g on earth but there is no better high than k*****g someone and never getting caught. Shame that I get to experience that only once”.
He never spoke to me anything after that and died day or two later.
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5points
#47
A person admitting they spent their whole life regretting the chances they never took.
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5points
#49
Another one...not necessarily a d***h bed confession, more so it was just very spooky. I worked at a hospice and dementia facility for a little while as a caregiver. The unit I was working, one of the residents was actively dying, something that was very routine and normal in that line of work. We weren't sure when she would pass, it could be any minute or in a day or so. Her hospice nurse was there and her family, she was set up to have a comfortable d***h surrounded by her loved ones.
Well there was another resident that lived a few rooms down from the dying lady. I'll call her Dottie. Well Dottie is the oldest resident in that facility, she is over 100yrs old. There had been many times that we all thought she was on deaths door, but she just kept bouncing back. Well that evening after dinner and checking on my actively dying resident, who was realively stable (her hospice nurse said if she had to guess, she will probably pass sometime the following day but it could be sooner or later, one can truly never know) i went to go assist Dottie with getting ready for bed.
Everything was going as it normally does. Helped her use the restroom, get her dentures cleaned, pjs on. We usually chit chat and have small talk while doing these things. So we are chit chatting as we left her bathroom to get to her bed when she abruptly stopped talking to me and her eyes locked in on someone or something on her bed. I no longer existed to her in that moment. Which not necessarily weird, the woman has dementia and can slip in and out of lucidity...what was weird is the conversation with the entity I couldn't perceive. Dottie's eyes lit up with excitement and joy and she said "oh friend! You have finally come! Is there anything I should pack for our trip!?" There is a moment of quiet, like she is listening to someone telling her something. And then her face got a little sad and the light in her eyes dimmed a little and replied with "oh
...oh dear...oh dear...I see, I understand...are you sure? You can't take me too?...are you sure you're not here for me?" Another moment of quiet and then she said "you promise? You promise you'll come back for me?" After another pause she said sadly "well I suppose you best be on your way then dearie, next time maybe you'll have a room for me" This lady is staring at the bed, like someone is there and her eyes move like they are watching someone stand up and walk past us to the door and as this "person" is passing she is looking up at them and says "I love you too, see you soon!" Finally she like snapped out of that conversation and looked up to me sadly and I asked her if everything is ok? Are you ready to get in bed? And she just nodded and said sleep sounded good. When I got her all tucked in she asked me "did you see him? Did you see him too?" And I said no I think whoever came to visit didn't want me to see them. To which she said "mmm yes probably so, you are too young for him to show himself...he comes to visit often but never for me, he keeps promising that he will be here for me when its right" and I was like "Who is this Dottie?" And she kinda laughed like duh isn't it obvious and was like "That was D***h, I don't know his name besides that one...sounds scary...D***h, he is the furthest thing from scary. But D***h has come tonight, he said he is here for someone else down the hall...why can't he just take me with him? Why do I have to wait so long? I'm tired"
So yea I finish getting her in bed, say goodnight and high tail it over to my actively dying resident and surprise, surprise...she had taken her last breath a few minutes before I walked in.
Well there was another resident that lived a few rooms down from the dying lady. I'll call her Dottie. Well Dottie is the oldest resident in that facility, she is over 100yrs old. There had been many times that we all thought she was on deaths door, but she just kept bouncing back. Well that evening after dinner and checking on my actively dying resident, who was realively stable (her hospice nurse said if she had to guess, she will probably pass sometime the following day but it could be sooner or later, one can truly never know) i went to go assist Dottie with getting ready for bed.
Everything was going as it normally does. Helped her use the restroom, get her dentures cleaned, pjs on. We usually chit chat and have small talk while doing these things. So we are chit chatting as we left her bathroom to get to her bed when she abruptly stopped talking to me and her eyes locked in on someone or something on her bed. I no longer existed to her in that moment. Which not necessarily weird, the woman has dementia and can slip in and out of lucidity...what was weird is the conversation with the entity I couldn't perceive. Dottie's eyes lit up with excitement and joy and she said "oh friend! You have finally come! Is there anything I should pack for our trip!?" There is a moment of quiet, like she is listening to someone telling her something. And then her face got a little sad and the light in her eyes dimmed a little and replied with "oh
...oh dear...oh dear...I see, I understand...are you sure? You can't take me too?...are you sure you're not here for me?" Another moment of quiet and then she said "you promise? You promise you'll come back for me?" After another pause she said sadly "well I suppose you best be on your way then dearie, next time maybe you'll have a room for me" This lady is staring at the bed, like someone is there and her eyes move like they are watching someone stand up and walk past us to the door and as this "person" is passing she is looking up at them and says "I love you too, see you soon!" Finally she like snapped out of that conversation and looked up to me sadly and I asked her if everything is ok? Are you ready to get in bed? And she just nodded and said sleep sounded good. When I got her all tucked in she asked me "did you see him? Did you see him too?" And I said no I think whoever came to visit didn't want me to see them. To which she said "mmm yes probably so, you are too young for him to show himself...he comes to visit often but never for me, he keeps promising that he will be here for me when its right" and I was like "Who is this Dottie?" And she kinda laughed like duh isn't it obvious and was like "That was D***h, I don't know his name besides that one...sounds scary...D***h, he is the furthest thing from scary. But D***h has come tonight, he said he is here for someone else down the hall...why can't he just take me with him? Why do I have to wait so long? I'm tired"
So yea I finish getting her in bed, say goodnight and high tail it over to my actively dying resident and surprise, surprise...she had taken her last breath a few minutes before I walked in.
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5points
#50
Made up names, for reasons, but;
My uncle Frank was a real piece of work. His heart had tried to take him out several times and near the end it was an amalgamation of machine parts and donor valves. But my Aunt Judith still loved him, and they celebrated 60 years of marriage.
Frank took a nasty spill stepping out of an elevator that shattered his clavicle, which had him laid up in a hospital bed. It was a month into his recovery when everything went to hell, his heart was giving out on him. He started slipping in and out of it for days at a time.
Before he passed, he had a lucid night where he asked all the staff where Doris was. He asked my cousins to get Doris. When family would show up, the nurses would mention that he kept asking for Doris.
His friends, his mom, his sister, his wife of 60 years... none of them were named Doris. We still don't know who he was talking about. .
My uncle Frank was a real piece of work. His heart had tried to take him out several times and near the end it was an amalgamation of machine parts and donor valves. But my Aunt Judith still loved him, and they celebrated 60 years of marriage.
Frank took a nasty spill stepping out of an elevator that shattered his clavicle, which had him laid up in a hospital bed. It was a month into his recovery when everything went to hell, his heart was giving out on him. He started slipping in and out of it for days at a time.
Before he passed, he had a lucid night where he asked all the staff where Doris was. He asked my cousins to get Doris. When family would show up, the nurses would mention that he kept asking for Doris.
His friends, his mom, his sister, his wife of 60 years... none of them were named Doris. We still don't know who he was talking about. .
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5points
#51
I used to work hospice, had one dude just about sit up and asked "where are they?". His kids lived across the country and were not very present, but evidently they were who he was talking about.
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5points
#52
My grandmother (essentially raised me) told me she’d been so hard on me (transphobic, generally overly critical) in the last few years of her life because she thought it would make me handle her d***h easier. I think telling me might’ve been the cruelest part. I used to beg her to stop and just have a regular conversation with me because I missed her and knew we didn’t have infinite time.
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4points
#53
I worked in a Long Term Acute and Critical Care unit( LTACC) and we had one guy who was fully aware and competent but was circling the drain for a long time, coding nearly weekly, but insisted on being a full code. One day after I came back from being off and heard he coded again while I was gone and had several broken ribs on top of his several terminal illnesses I asked him why he kept fighting just to stay here and suffer. He said it was because he believed in God and was a very bad man all his adult life. He didn't say what he did, but that it wasn't with adults.
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4points
#54
It was my ex's mom. we were exes when she died. he had never told her. I don't know that it was disturbing just that it was really uncomfortable and I couldn't do anything about it.
we still cared about each other greatly so when his entire family got together to hang out with her in the basement while she was on her d***h bed, he asked me to come and I said okay. I did not know at the time he had not told anyone that we broke up. so there I was with his entire family not as a friend, but as a girlfriend, and just before she passed she wanted to hold my hand and thank me for taking care of her son and making sure that he was okay during this transition. I had no idea what to say. I'm not taking care of your son, he f*****g cheated on me. we're childhood friends and I'm here because I love you, not because I love him
so I just smiled. and then 5 minutes later she died. I guess the most disturbing part was having to process what she just said as I felt the life go out of her body.
we still cared about each other greatly so when his entire family got together to hang out with her in the basement while she was on her d***h bed, he asked me to come and I said okay. I did not know at the time he had not told anyone that we broke up. so there I was with his entire family not as a friend, but as a girlfriend, and just before she passed she wanted to hold my hand and thank me for taking care of her son and making sure that he was okay during this transition. I had no idea what to say. I'm not taking care of your son, he f*****g cheated on me. we're childhood friends and I'm here because I love you, not because I love him
so I just smiled. and then 5 minutes later she died. I guess the most disturbing part was having to process what she just said as I felt the life go out of her body.
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4points
#55
My dad told me two days before he died that my sister wasn’t my sister. My mom got pregnant with one of the guys in the neighborhood and my dad covered for it for 50 years. I’m seven years old and I just found out.
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4points
#56
I was sitting bedside of my mom. She was pretty out of it because of the cancer. Ireached over and held her hand. She looked at me andnin her clearest voice in a month. SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU BOYCE, I'VE BEEN WAITING A LONG TIME. Then closed her eyes and passed. Boyce was my dad. We looked nothing alike and he passed away in 1967.
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4points
#57
My grandma told me “you only visit me when I’m sick” and that has stuck with me.
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4points
#58
I have a brain damaged relative. She was tossed off her balcony tied to a chair because people owed her money and she kept asking for it. She wasn’t a credible witness in court(due to brain damage) so guys got off.
Well my dad’s family is not what you call credible people either.
Some time later one of the two; apparently one guy disappeared but the second sometime later ended up in the hospital for reasons and made the d***h bed confession that he did infact try to k**l her.
my mom told me, a long time after this had happened, 30 years plus.
Well my dad’s family is not what you call credible people either.
Some time later one of the two; apparently one guy disappeared but the second sometime later ended up in the hospital for reasons and made the d***h bed confession that he did infact try to k**l her.
my mom told me, a long time after this had happened, 30 years plus.
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3points
#59
My gramps was delirious on morphine before he died saying he sees demons around his bed.
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3points
#60
The knowledge of what's happening. Have you ever seen a person overstating whats happening right before they do something scary? Wide eyed before they "jump", so to speak. Its courageous, no doubt, but the hesitant acceptance is more disturbing to me than the panic of "im gonna d*e".
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1point
