35 People Reveal Deathbed Confessions They've Heard That They Can't Get Out Of Their Heads

My dad had Alzheimer's and ended up in a secure ward. He was blind and almost deaf. I was visiting him one day. He didn't know who I was, but he started talking about me. He said I had done better than him in life and that he was proud of me. He was a quiet man IRL and never told me that when I was growing up.

Looking back, he did things that my dumb a*s never realised were for me. Like, when he retired his colleagues asked what he'd like as a present. He chose a scientific calculator (this was back in the 1970's). He had no use for it. He gave it to me for university. I thought he was just passing it on, not realising that he'd asked for it with me in mind.

When I was in hospital, the guy in the bed next to me just asked to stop taking his meds as he was ready to die. Last thing I heard him say was "There's no one waiting for me at home, so I'm going where they are."

Wasn't really a shocking confession, just a lonely and heartbreaking one.

I have an amazing one:

My great grandmother lived a very long and interesting life. She was in her 20s in the great depression. She had a wild streak from those days that we don't know much about, to the point that we actually don't know our great grandfather's name. Just the husband she took later.

Over the course of her nearly 100 year life, she had collected owls. Literally thousands of owl figurines. She had clocks, wall-hangings, potholders, lamps, stained glass art, salt shakers, and more little figurines than you could imagine, all depicting owls.

We all wondered the importance of the owls. She never talked about them, we just all knew she loved owls.

Well, when she was nearing death, at the age of 98 or 99, and the docs said she had days, my grandparents went and talked to her and they asked her if she had anything she wanted to share or ask before she goes.

She thought for a moment, then said, "I never understood the owls."

It turns out, she didn't really give a s**t about owls. Near as we could piece together sometime in the 40s or 50s perhaps, she bought either a trivet or a set of salt/pepper shakers that were owls. Then someone got her the other. Those were the oldest owls anyone could remember. But from there, someone got her an owl to match, probably a potholder or place mat. And all the sudden her kitchen was owl themed. From there, it snowballed. The owls flowed like wine, baffling her for 60 years, eventually taking over as the bulk of her personal belongings.

The moral is: if you're not actually into something, mention it early.

This isnt a confession, but I just wanted to share the last thing my grandfather said to me before he passed away due to lungcancer. I was about to go to Rome for a schooltrip and my family told me to go to set my mind on something else for a few days. Before I left I wanted to say goodbye as it was possibly the last time I could talk to him. He told me: "Have fun boy, I'll see you next week." I went to Rome and when I came back, he was already in a deep sleep due to medication. He wanted to peacefully pass away while sleeping. I came back the next week and he was sleeping when I went to visit him. I told him everything I did in Rome even though I knew he wouldn't wake up. The next morning he passed away. My grandmother said to me: "He waited for you"

I still miss him so much.

My grandpa, a Sicilian man with blessed cooking skills, told us on his deathbed that his meatballs were actually frozen meatballs from the grocery store

Not my story but that of a hospice worker who spoke to my class. For those who don’t know, hospice is a method of end-of-life care that focuses on alleviating the emotional & physical pain of a dying person to ease their passing rather than combatting their imminent death.

One of her patients was a bed-bound woman in her 90s who was generally unresponsive but had flashes of recognition & engagement. It’s hard to gauge the level to which unresponsive patients are detached from their surroundings, so they encourage family members to keep their company in hopes of soothing the patient. Now this patient was from a U.S. state that prided itself on its state university (and the university’s football team). The woman’s family had attended this university for four or five generations. During her hospice care, however, her great-granddaughter was the first in their family to decide to go to a different school—the rival state’s university, in fact. Her family was supportive of her decision but often joked about her being the “rebel” or “Judas” or what-have-you.

One day, they were all sitting around the woman’s bedside, teasing the girl about her decision. Suddenly, the patient sat up, looked at her great-granddaughter, said, “Traitor,” and f*****g DIED.

Edit: Thanks for the awards! FWIW, the hospice worker said her family (eventually) thought it was hilarious. Go Bucks

My husband had a cardiac event that required an ambulance. As the ambulance was arriving I asked him if the code to open his phone was XXXX, he said yes, then looked up at me and said "I am so sorry".

He had successful surgery, but had several strokes on the operating table and was taken off life support after 7 days.

When I opened his phone I found out he was having an affair. The same code to his phone also opened his laptop where I found telephone recordings of he and his girlfriend, as well as screenshots of their chats.

I don't know how interesting this is, but it was certainly devastating to me.

My Nana was renowned for religiously having a gin and tonic at 9pm every night. She and my Grandpa had started the tradition on the honeymoon and she continued it 20 years after his death.

On her own deathbed in the hospital we managed to sneak in a gin and tonic in a hip flask. We offered it to her, only for Nana to turn around and say "I've never really been fond of them"

Bless her, she went out laughing at us

I worked as a night janitor in the children's cancer ward at my local hospital. There was a little boy (about 6 years old) laying in bed and he called me in to his room because he wanted help adjusting his pillow (he was hooked up with wires and stuff so he couldnt roll over to place the pillow how he wanted.) Figuring I'd be allowed to do it since a nurse wasn't really needed for it, I parked my cart outside of the room and went in.

In the room, he started asking me different questions about my job. The first being was I a nurse. I said no. He asked me if I seen his mom in the hallway and told me that she'd gone down to the cafeteria to get him strawberry milk and a donut, I said no to that to. He was quiet for a second. Then he looked me right in the face and said "If I pass away soon, I hope that my mom is not sad."

That hit me. Like really really hard. This kid was 100 percent aware that he could die and his mother would be affected by it. I didn't even know how to feel so I told him that he wasn't going to pass away and hundreds of people survive cancer (which is a big number to someone that young). I left shortly after and broke down crying in the bathroom. A few days later, I was wiping down the wooden support railings along the walls of that hallway and his room was "closed for cleaning + disinfection". That sign is only hung outside of rooms when someone dies

When my grandfather was on his deathbed, he told the doctor "f**k you, I ain't dying!" He fought for as long as he could, survived 4 heart attacks and god knows how many strokes, but eventually he passed. But goddamn if he wasn't an inspiration. Some days I have a hard time getting out of bed, or finding a reason to do anything. But this old coot found a reason to keep living: spite. He looked death in the face several times and said "f**k you, I'm gonna make you work for it!"

Miss ya Butch.

I didn't see it, but my aunt watched her elderly mother fall down the stairs and confess just before she died that she wasn't her biological mother.

She told my aunt that her oldest sister was actually her mother. The sister had gotten pregnant too young and the mom said it was hers. A common way of handling it back then. She revealed it in her very last breath.

Mother ran a nursing home growing up. From ages 5-10 I spent every weekend with residents.
Because I was a kid, residents often confessed stuff they thought I wouldn’t understand.
Two stick out. One funny, one not.

Women was dying, maybe about 96. Even had her last burst of energy/life where she thought she was “better” (this is common). A Black delivery man came with some flowers. After he left she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “I can’t believe I’m dying without having been with a colored man.”

Second one was while I was reading bible verses to a resident, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to drop that baby in the well.”

Not a deathbed confession, but the last conversation I had with my grandfather has always stuck with me. He had Parkinson’s, and lived on a farm outside of town. One day he looked at me and said “I’m getting too old to take care of Mom (my grandmother). I need you to do that for me, okay?” His health deteriorated pretty rapidly from that point onward

I still call my grandmother every single day, and try to get back home whenever I can to help out around the farm.

My great grandfather was in his mid 90's when he died. Health was always good, but a benign tumor deemed to dangerous to operate on at his age went septic. He was dead a week later.

I went to visit him in the hospital. My family used to see him a lot, but there was a falling out between him and my grandma several years before, so we stopped seeing them. Funny enough though, I constantly ran into him at the store and we always had nice chats.

Anyway, in the hospital he told me not to worry about him. Most everyone he's every known was dead, and he was ready to die.

The week he felt himself getting sick, he know something was off and made arrangements to get my great grandma into a nursing home. He took care of her with her alzheimer's, so he wouldn't die until he knew she was taken care of. They were married for over 70 years. My favorite story is that every Sunday for over 50 years, he would drop my great grandma off at church, and then sat in the car and waited for her. Hated religion, but loved his wife lol.

I may not be your real grandfather, I kidnapped your Mom when she was little.

That was a heck of a punch in the gut for sure.

My time to shine; I worked at a hospital in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small town near Munich for the last 14 years. My job there is not fancy at all, I move people around, throw the trash out and occasionally I take care of some handy-like work (fix a leaking shower head and stuff like that).

As you can imagine, I get to see a lot of patients that come and go, some of them pass away (such is life, I guess). I remember a few instances of people confessing to me their biggest regrets, here are some examples:

- An old polish woman, told me that she regretted "not f*****g Hitler when she had the chance" (her words). I wanted to ask her about more context, but I was afraid to be honest.

- Another notable example was an old truck driver that used to work for an Easter Germany company, he told me that he once run over some kids with his truck and was too afraid to stop and check if they were ok.

- Once another Polish lady told me that she used to be a prostitute during 2nd World War and that she slept with "very high up" people in the government. She told me that she did not regret that part of her life, but that she could not tell anyone and that was a heavy emotional drag. She also told me that she aborted more than five babies during that time.

My grandfather admitted to me and only me that he "accidentally" had sex with a man

My partners grandfather never spoke about his WW2 service, we are Australian. He joined after lying about his name and age so we can't find any records, he would have been 16. We do know he was in the Pacific somewhere and when he got back his lie was exposed and because he was by then 18 he was drafted under his real name...and promptly arrested, he would do anything to not get sent back to fight! He got drunk, fought and self harmed.

His adult life was spent mostly as an alcoholic and being a s**t husband and father though in his later years he was able to make some good. Grandkids appearing softened him.

In his dying hours he relived his time at war. Some things he said...

Oh god they are here

The japs are behind us sir

Stab him, stab him...f*****g stick him!

Help

Medic

All around

And he also had a string of names he kept saying. Such a tortured, broken mind.

Many years ago I was working in an open heart surgery ICU and had a man in his early 40’s as my patient. He had many tattoos of demons, etc. He didn’t recover very well after his emergency heart surgery and was in a medically induced coma for about two weeks before we could wake him up and remove his breathing tube. When he finally woke up he was crying. He said I feel like I just spent an entire lifetime in hell and I’ve done horrible things in my life and I completely deserved it. He wept for hours and wanted to apologize to everyone he had ever hurt in his life.

My Grandma suffered from dementia for many years before she passed. It got so bad she didn’t remember who her family were, and would barricade herself in her home because she was scared of everyone.

She even forgot she smoked and would find her cigarettes months later after forgetting where they were and claim she was desperate for one. She’d put them away after 1 and that would be her again for months.

The only memories she had left at the end was that her sister used to be able to play the piano beautifully and her husband - her childhood sweetheart - was gone but she didn’t know where (he’d died some time earlier).

She spent her days waiting for him to come home from wherever he was. “My John will be home soon” she would say, or someone would walk past the window and she’d double take and say “thought that was my John”.

It was heartbreaking watching her deteriorate until she was on her deathbed, unaware of anything or anyone. I went to say my goodbyes to her in the hospital and she held my hand and told me how much she loved me but how she was ready to go be with John now.

In that moment, she remembered who I was, what was happening to her and that her husband, my Grandad, had gone already. She went in her sleep not long after that, and I’m forever thankful I managed to say goodbye and tell her how much I loved her too.

I’ve held onto that moment for so long without really digesting it in anyway that writing this just tore my heart out. I miss them both so much but I know they’re finally together again somewhere.