The Last Word

For each of us, as we are about to leave our lives, there is going to be something very important that we will want to say at the very end. This is a marvelous story I heard on NPR this morning on that subject.

A woman recalled that her grandmother had embraced the internet late in her life. She loved to email her friends and send out text messages. It was her way of connecting in a richer way with the world. The old woman lived to age of 96.

On the last day of her life, the narrator and her mother were at the old woman's bedside. Her grandmother was desperately trying to say something, but couldn't. The woman moved closer to her grandmother and the last words the old woman said were: "Delete my email."

The narrator, being a dutiful grandchild did so without reading any of the emails and reformatted the hard drive.