15 Powerful Last Words People Said Before They Died

13.

“I will remember this patient until my own dying day; because of him, I realized with blinding clarity what hospice care is for. We will call him Vladimir. He was 101 years old and in a diabetic coma. He had gangrene of both feet, so in the event that he regained consciousness, he had a double amputation to look forward to. Per his medical history, he had been a professional dancer in his youth. Vladimir had outlived his entire family, including his only grandson. He never had visitors while in my unit at the hospital.”

“I used to sit at his bedside to work on chart notes just to keep him company. Sometimes I’d read the newspaper to him or tell him jokes. This went on for weeks with nary a twitch from Vladimir, so I didn’t know if he could hear me or not. I was definitely leaning toward NOT.

But one Monday morning, I was at his bedside as usual when I suddenly felt I was being watched. I looked up from my charting to find Vlad’s intense blue eyes staring at me imperiously:

‘DO YOU VANT ME TO LIVE?!?’ he demanded.

I was startled to the point of stuttering: ‘Uhhhh… Sure!’

‘Then you must get me…THE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!’ he thundered back.

‘Wait here,’ I said idiotically and ran to the nurses’ station. 

I asked the charge nurse where I could get chocolate ice cream, pronto, as the patient in 20A had just regained consciousness and was asked specifically.
Without even turning around, she said, ‘You can’t give 20A ice cream, chocolate or otherwise, because his primary diagnosis is uncontrolled diabetes.’

‘Yes, I can,’ I replied, ‘Because his condition is terminal. It may be the last time he gets to taste ice cream before he dies. Do you want to tell him he can’t have it, that he needs to have sugar-free Jello instead for his health? What kind of sense does that make?’

‘Well, when you put it that way… You can usually find individual servings of ice cream up on Maternity.’

So Vlad got a half-pint of chocolate ice cream, gleefully savored every spoonful, and gave me a wink and a smile.

Then he sighed, closed his eyes…and died.”

—Sabrina Walkosz, Quora