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These 19 People Witnessed Someone Die

5.

I watched my 27 yr old wife die of leukemia. We didn't know she was sick. She went to the doc because her gums were swollen and did not know why. Doc called and said she had to go to the hospital right away and if she didn't she wouldn't make it thru the weekend. She went in and spent almost 10 months in there fighting it with chemo. And when it was her time, she refused to die. They pronounced her dead three times that night. She did not go peacefully, it was the most horrible thing I've ever experienced to see her kick and scream and hold on, I was not prepared for that. But the most heartbreaking part was when the ambulance was called on her last 24hrs to take her to a hospice facility. When they loaded her in the ambulance she stopped them hugged me and said in my ear “take care of my babies”. She knew she would never see home or them again.

6.

I saw a man jump from a top floor at the Sheridan Hotel in Toronto, Ontario this past summer. I was walking to work I noticed him falling just before he hit the ground. I turned around, went home, and didn't say a word for the rest of the day. It was most affecting due to the fact I had been having some suicidal thoughts that week and it acted like a punch in the face to smarten up.

7.

I'm pretty sure my grandpa was gone before his body actually died. It was very hard to watch. I always heard the “death rattle” breathing line, but I thought it wasn't real – it is. You can hear this weird rasping, rattle. He would go into periods of apnea near the end and he'd get so pale. I freaked out a few times because we thought he'd died. Then he would suck in air like a fish, just a huge gasp. Finally, he went into one of those periods and just stopped, first for a minute, then two, then three. Then finally he was declared. After he died, I straightened out his hands. My grandpa was a logger and was so strong. But when he became paralyzed, his hands got very weak and before he died, they hurt so bad he would mostly just curl them up to his chest, sort of in a funny position.

Written by Alex Cogen

Alex is a New Yorker currently living in Austin. She loves cats, grass, and latex but unfortunately is allergic to all 3. She makes mom and dad jokes more than she cares to admit (jk she'll admit it loud and proud). She isn't as funny as she thinks she is. She is the founder of thelazygurl.com.