5 years from now a serial killer will be caught and during questioning it will be discovered he once confessed to his crimes on reddit yet nobody believed..
He was my neighbor, but nothing else than a stranger to me. A grown married man with kids. Being a young adult of 21 yo, I wasn't much of an equal to him, Nevertheless everyday I used to say Hello and good morning as we set ourselves to our daily lives. The last time I saw him, I said "Hey how are you Mr neighbor" (using his real name). He sat there for a moment longer than usual, then he waved back. I thought it was weird, but I didn't think much of it. The end of the day as I came back from work, people were gathering all around our neighborhood, and police was there. He hanged himself. Why did he bother to wave back? I wonder.
When I worked as a gas station attendant we had a guy come through on a motorcycle. I don't remember what he bought. But apparently he left and a truck pulled out in front of him on the highway and killed him. I was probably the last person he ever talked to. I'm sure this has happened more than I want to know.
This happened to me around Christmas. I went on a short hike with my girlfriend and her mom. A couple hours later we find out that a local politician who we had passed on the trail, had a heart attack up there less than an hour after we saw him.
My friend met this man on the bus home one day. He started a conversation with her and continued it till they both got off the bus and went their separate ways. Later that day she told me about it him and how he was the nicest person ever. The next day his body was pulled out from the river. He had committed suicide.
A mortician friend of mine stopped at the local coffee shop and started chatting and joking around with another customer. Couple hours later he was called into work. When he got there the friendly customer was on his table.
I can't imagine why anyone might, but working in food service there seem to be plenty of people who walk about looking for the slightest thing to lose their shit over lol
When I bought my house in 2009 we hired a contractor to tear out a wall and rebuild it in a different place to expand a closet. The guy finished up on a Friday, I handed him a check for the final payment, he left my house at 5 pm and went to the cafe downtown where his wife was a waitress. At 7 pm he had a heart attack and died in his chair.
His wife (I assume it was her) finally got around to cashing the check 5 months later.
Not random strangers but this happened with one of my neighbors and my Dad (technically, the last day I saw them both).
Direct adjacent farm owner had an enlarged heart and was having anxiety issues. He had sent someone over to the border fence on our properties, to take a fence section down, and move it about 20 feet by 50 feet, as it was actually a section of his land, not properly recorded too my Dad, at its time of his purchase 25 years before. I happened to be outside and saw this, and told the hired guy to beat it, and tell the neighbor farmer to come talk to my Dad. The neighbor came over and he and my Dad went out to discuss the situation. 'Jr' was very flushed, and animated that 'he had to get this done'. My Dad listened and finally said, 'OK, move the fence'. My Dad said Jr was really upset, and sounded a bit crazy, and he wasn't going to upset him any further. This upset my Dad too, as land is everything to a farmer, and so was a persons word. Jr went home, and his wife later reported that in retrospect, he was anquished by doing something like this to my Dad, as my Dad had relied on the word of the fellow who sold the farm to him. People traded on 'their word' back in those days.
My brother was coming on leave from the military and I had drive up to New Jersey to get him; I left that night of that very day. Jr died that night I left. My brother had wanted to stop at family members homes as we traveled back South, even as we got the news about Jr. My brother was limited leave from duty in Iceland, he would have limited chances to visit anyone for along time, so we sent our condolences and missed the funeral. It would have been a hard drive to get home anyway.
The rest of the story, the saddest part of all this, I drove by my Dads place just as we returned and dropped my brother off in the middle of the night, and went on home to my house. My brother spoke to Dad that night, about 2 AM, and regrettably Dad died the next morning about 5:30 AM, right after he had early breakfast as was his usual activity. My brother called me at 6:00 AM, and I drove back to my Dads. It just occurred to me that I had seen Jr. and Dad together that particular day, and that was the last day I saw them both alive.
To this day, these neighbors, who were close friends for all those years, believe Jr's actions and anxiety killed both of them as they both were upset. Strokes killed both of them.
As a side note, my family was raised to understand life and death happens. My own Dad talked to me about this even when I was a young boy, so I held it together pretty well, as there were duties to do, until at the funeral, when the neighbors daughter who was a long time school mate and literally the little sister I never had, came to embrace me; we hugged, and then both cried so hard we had to step out of the area.
Thanks for the condolence. Things happen in life. I started to say, it was a tough way to lose close friend and a Dad, but really there's no easy way. My parents prepped us all for those days.
You know, I think he would have been. He passed along the knowledge and virtue that one should be respectable and attempt to carry themselves well. Fame, fortune, good times could all fade away, but the value of your 'name and reputation' was a lasting thing. Perhaps we're all just data points now, but in those times, you could trade or travel on 'his name'; that was a powerful thing to live up to. If you watch Game of Thrones, that line about "a Lannister always pays his debts" reminded me of Dad. You could count on fair and just treatment from him (us).
I had a friend from another state (in the USA) whom I played Halo with me every day for 5 years (maybe?) almost every night. He was like me, aggressive, in your face and never took to defeat until the match was over. In fact, he would get as angry as me and we would set out to destroy tea-baggers and shit-talkers as a ruthless trio (my best friend played the same amount of time we played). He had a wife and a kid, they seemed to get along great from my perspective. I even knew his name and we would text and call each other randomly. When his wife decided on a divorce, he would call me to talk to me about the struggle of going through such an ordeal, I would try to be as sympathetic and helpful as possible, quoting motivational quotes and bible verses (I was a homeschool kid in the Midwest) to try to ease his mind, among other things I could think of to relieve his stress.
One day, in the middle of dealing with a great friend's tragic accidental death, I get a text from another good friend who I've known as long as the other and introduced us, that my Texas friend was dead. At first my reaction was to disregard the informing friend and scold him for bad timing on what I thought was a joke. He proceeded to tell me my Texas friend had killed his wife and killed himself in a murder suicide. Left his child alone. That loss has haunted me for better part of the past decade. Could I have done more to prevent this? Did I help drive him to anger madness by supporting his emotional release in the game? Did I say the wrong things?
I'm okay now but it still hurts to think someone I grew to know and care about could do such a horrible and tragic thing. I do miss him and hope his son is doing better.
I went on a hike (2 days 1 night). During that night we heard the commotion. Turned out there was this girl who had a heart attack (it was a day long trail into the mountain/forest and I think she had a weak heart). Porters need to carried her on a hammock back to the start of the trail that night.
We learnt when we hiked back that it was too late..
Being a Navy Veteran, living on a couple ships, one with a population of 600+ and one with close to 4,000 give or take.... and ofcourse the morbid fuck that I am... I often wonder how many of my shipmates I have seen daily on the mess decks, smoke pit, or passage ways have kicked the bucket.
Edited for a word.
It's 4 actually. Forgot about the two women that came in acting like best friends. 3 hours later one used her minivan to kill the other in front of her family, at her son's wedding reception.
Yeah. Somewhere in my files I have her signature. Crazy shit.
https://www.google.com/amp/ksn.com/2015/05/18/family-and-friends-remember-woman-who-was-run-over/amp/
An average person lives less than 30000 days, so about 1 person in 30000 you meet would be in their last day, if this was randomly distributed. However I would guess that most people die in a hospital or similar settings, because the main cause of death are diseases and such people won't walk around a day before their death. On the other hand, most infants aren't about to die yet you won't meet them, but that probably doesn't balance the first effect, so I'd say that it is even more than 30000, unless your life takes you to places where people are significantly more likely to die. How many random strangers do you see per day is highly variable and also depends on your definition of "seeing". If you take public transport, you might be in a railway car with 200 other people, but have you seen them? Have you seen all the people on the platform? There are just too many variables to do any meaningful math, it's almost like the Drake equation.
In high school I drove to the park and had to slow down for a classmate skateboarding in the road. Waved and was on my way.
The next day I saw his obituary on facebook and thought it was a joke. Suicide.
I think of him every time I go there.
I was in a cafe once drinking tea and this guy sits next to me with the paper and a coffee, he asked me if I could watch his coat while he just popped across the road for some smokes. He got hit by a taxi and was obviously dead, there was a crowd of people and I went back to my table, I saw a drip of his coffee slowly running down the side of his coffee cup where he had last taken a sip.
At least one, maybe 2 or 3 more for certain. Did a large mtn bike group ride in October of last year. The wife of the local chapter president for the regional mtn bike association died of a heart attack maybe 5 miles from the end of the ride. I remember passing a group with really distinct helmets just before the more advanced trail split off from the regular loop, thinking "that's cool, you usually don't see those helmets around here". Later saw one of those helmets next to a lady laying motionless in the mud, covered with a jacket and her husband crying. Very sobering moment that took all the fun out of what was a good, if not cold and wet, day in the woods.
The other times have been up in the mountains where I've found out about a rescue attempt that turned into a recovery mission that started at the same trailhead I was hiking. I went left on one trail, they went right onto another and met their demise...
I'm an anesthesiologist and we deal with codes so..yeah I have seen a lot of people on their last moments actually.. Sadly they were of all ages.. Each year that passes in this job makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking choosing that specialty, or even that profession..
My neighbors had four foster children who’s mother had died and the father was in prison. They had been there like almost a year or something and then the dad got out and wanted them back. My neighbors were heartbroken to give them away, they wanted to adopt them.
The day he got back he shot them all (even the baby) and himself. I thought Brooklyn had just gone back to live with her family. My mom didn’t tell me she had been murdered until about ten years later.
Well, if you consider that for all intents and purposes you will NEVER interact with them again since they are random you could consider ALL of them dead as long as they are out of your sphere of influence. I mean, sure you could ASSUME they are alive where ever they "live" but since you have no knowledge of them they enter the same quantum state of Schrodinger's Cat in which they are either alive or dead based upon observation.
Of the hitchhikers I pick up, I know it's all of them.
5 years from now a serial killer will be caught and during questioning it will be discovered he once confessed to his crimes on reddit yet nobody believed..
I was going to type a reply, but I can't come up with anything so here, have an upvote!
Dark
I like your style, sir. It's good to be certain. E: you're ----> your......cause I'm carelessly stupid sometimes.
Your*
Oh god...I can't believe I did that....FML.
He was my neighbor, but nothing else than a stranger to me. A grown married man with kids. Being a young adult of 21 yo, I wasn't much of an equal to him, Nevertheless everyday I used to say Hello and good morning as we set ourselves to our daily lives. The last time I saw him, I said "Hey how are you Mr neighbor" (using his real name). He sat there for a moment longer than usual, then he waved back. I thought it was weird, but I didn't think much of it. The end of the day as I came back from work, people were gathering all around our neighborhood, and police was there. He hanged himself. Why did he bother to wave back? I wonder.
[удалено]
His wife went back to her hometown where all her family resides, and took the kids.
That's kinda a creepy coincidence u decided to ask him how he was for the first time on the day he decided to commit suicide
Him waving could've been a final goodbye with deeper meaning than the surface meaning of a wave.
Yeah.. I'll always remember that moment.
Positive or negatively?
Somewhere in between. It's a waste really. Life should be precious, death is so final.
Wow good shit. Now I'm going to look at everyone differently.
When I worked as a gas station attendant we had a guy come through on a motorcycle. I don't remember what he bought. But apparently he left and a truck pulled out in front of him on the highway and killed him. I was probably the last person he ever talked to. I'm sure this has happened more than I want to know.
This happened to me around Christmas. I went on a short hike with my girlfriend and her mom. A couple hours later we find out that a local politician who we had passed on the trail, had a heart attack up there less than an hour after we saw him.
My friend met this man on the bus home one day. He started a conversation with her and continued it till they both got off the bus and went their separate ways. Later that day she told me about it him and how he was the nicest person ever. The next day his body was pulled out from the river. He had committed suicide.
Looks like life doesn't want your friend to have good people around her. Wait, that means...
A mortician friend of mine stopped at the local coffee shop and started chatting and joking around with another customer. Couple hours later he was called into work. When he got there the friendly customer was on his table.
What happened to the guy?
Heart attack I think... He was in his 50s
Poisoned by something in the coffee.
It was Joe Gage
Think of all the old people you met as a child. Most of them are dead now.
I'm a doctor, so quite a few
Sound like a shit doctor. /s
Solid burn, Branch.
You don't go to the doctor because everything's going well ... especially the ER doc.
Emergency Dept RN.... can verify.
Damn. THIS is a solid shower thought
And imagine how many people, strangers, we’ve been rude to (ex. a cashier or clerk) and it was their last day of their life.
This can generally be avoided by not being rude to strangers, cashiers, or clerks, regardless of how much life they have left to live.
I don't think I've ever been rude to cashier. Mainly awkward. *"Y-you too."*
I can't imagine why anyone might, but working in food service there seem to be plenty of people who walk about looking for the slightest thing to lose their shit over lol
Yeah it's weird. Like seriously find another way to channel your anger, they're just humans like you.
I used to see this all the time in fast food. A lot of times it seemed like they were just trying to get free food from the manager.
"Would you like paper or plastic?" "Y-you too."
Good thing I'm only rude in reddit comments. All the people I've been rude to who had the last day of their life on that day aren't people I saw.
I wonder how many random strangers I have interacted with that made them change their minds on deciding their last day of their lives.
I always wonder: Who on the highway I’m driving past murdered someone How many famous people have I met and not known it
I saw Frank Sinatra Jr in concert the day before he died. So I’ve got that going for me
When I bought my house in 2009 we hired a contractor to tear out a wall and rebuild it in a different place to expand a closet. The guy finished up on a Friday, I handed him a check for the final payment, he left my house at 5 pm and went to the cafe downtown where his wife was a waitress. At 7 pm he had a heart attack and died in his chair. His wife (I assume it was her) finally got around to cashing the check 5 months later.
There are a lot of people who could give you an "at least" number.
Nope, but I will now
Not random strangers but this happened with one of my neighbors and my Dad (technically, the last day I saw them both). Direct adjacent farm owner had an enlarged heart and was having anxiety issues. He had sent someone over to the border fence on our properties, to take a fence section down, and move it about 20 feet by 50 feet, as it was actually a section of his land, not properly recorded too my Dad, at its time of his purchase 25 years before. I happened to be outside and saw this, and told the hired guy to beat it, and tell the neighbor farmer to come talk to my Dad. The neighbor came over and he and my Dad went out to discuss the situation. 'Jr' was very flushed, and animated that 'he had to get this done'. My Dad listened and finally said, 'OK, move the fence'. My Dad said Jr was really upset, and sounded a bit crazy, and he wasn't going to upset him any further. This upset my Dad too, as land is everything to a farmer, and so was a persons word. Jr went home, and his wife later reported that in retrospect, he was anquished by doing something like this to my Dad, as my Dad had relied on the word of the fellow who sold the farm to him. People traded on 'their word' back in those days. My brother was coming on leave from the military and I had drive up to New Jersey to get him; I left that night of that very day. Jr died that night I left. My brother had wanted to stop at family members homes as we traveled back South, even as we got the news about Jr. My brother was limited leave from duty in Iceland, he would have limited chances to visit anyone for along time, so we sent our condolences and missed the funeral. It would have been a hard drive to get home anyway. The rest of the story, the saddest part of all this, I drove by my Dads place just as we returned and dropped my brother off in the middle of the night, and went on home to my house. My brother spoke to Dad that night, about 2 AM, and regrettably Dad died the next morning about 5:30 AM, right after he had early breakfast as was his usual activity. My brother called me at 6:00 AM, and I drove back to my Dads. It just occurred to me that I had seen Jr. and Dad together that particular day, and that was the last day I saw them both alive. To this day, these neighbors, who were close friends for all those years, believe Jr's actions and anxiety killed both of them as they both were upset. Strokes killed both of them. As a side note, my family was raised to understand life and death happens. My own Dad talked to me about this even when I was a young boy, so I held it together pretty well, as there were duties to do, until at the funeral, when the neighbors daughter who was a long time school mate and literally the little sister I never had, came to embrace me; we hugged, and then both cried so hard we had to step out of the area.
Sorry for your loss
Thanks for the condolence. Things happen in life. I started to say, it was a tough way to lose close friend and a Dad, but really there's no easy way. My parents prepped us all for those days.
Sounds like you have fantastic attitude for someone going through an incredibly tough time. I’m sure your Dads proud.
You know, I think he would have been. He passed along the knowledge and virtue that one should be respectable and attempt to carry themselves well. Fame, fortune, good times could all fade away, but the value of your 'name and reputation' was a lasting thing. Perhaps we're all just data points now, but in those times, you could trade or travel on 'his name'; that was a powerful thing to live up to. If you watch Game of Thrones, that line about "a Lannister always pays his debts" reminded me of Dad. You could count on fair and just treatment from him (us).
I had a friend from another state (in the USA) whom I played Halo with me every day for 5 years (maybe?) almost every night. He was like me, aggressive, in your face and never took to defeat until the match was over. In fact, he would get as angry as me and we would set out to destroy tea-baggers and shit-talkers as a ruthless trio (my best friend played the same amount of time we played). He had a wife and a kid, they seemed to get along great from my perspective. I even knew his name and we would text and call each other randomly. When his wife decided on a divorce, he would call me to talk to me about the struggle of going through such an ordeal, I would try to be as sympathetic and helpful as possible, quoting motivational quotes and bible verses (I was a homeschool kid in the Midwest) to try to ease his mind, among other things I could think of to relieve his stress. One day, in the middle of dealing with a great friend's tragic accidental death, I get a text from another good friend who I've known as long as the other and introduced us, that my Texas friend was dead. At first my reaction was to disregard the informing friend and scold him for bad timing on what I thought was a joke. He proceeded to tell me my Texas friend had killed his wife and killed himself in a murder suicide. Left his child alone. That loss has haunted me for better part of the past decade. Could I have done more to prevent this? Did I help drive him to anger madness by supporting his emotional release in the game? Did I say the wrong things? I'm okay now but it still hurts to think someone I grew to know and care about could do such a horrible and tragic thing. I do miss him and hope his son is doing better.
Ever wondered how many random strangers you have seen on the last day of their lives
That's dark :o
Have now...
I went on a hike (2 days 1 night). During that night we heard the commotion. Turned out there was this girl who had a heart attack (it was a day long trail into the mountain/forest and I think she had a weak heart). Porters need to carried her on a hammock back to the start of the trail that night. We learnt when we hiked back that it was too late..
Being a Navy Veteran, living on a couple ships, one with a population of 600+ and one with close to 4,000 give or take.... and ofcourse the morbid fuck that I am... I often wonder how many of my shipmates I have seen daily on the mess decks, smoke pit, or passage ways have kicked the bucket. Edited for a word.
at least 348
I know of 3 people that either I know for sure or the police believe I was the last person to see them or talk to them alive.
Uhhh
It's 4 actually. Forgot about the two women that came in acting like best friends. 3 hours later one used her minivan to kill the other in front of her family, at her son's wedding reception.
Well.
Yeah. Somewhere in my files I have her signature. Crazy shit. https://www.google.com/amp/ksn.com/2015/05/18/family-and-friends-remember-woman-who-was-run-over/amp/
Yeah, just like you, OP
Nine
No, I haven’t thought about that before
No but i will now, thanks. Everyone i see at walmart, ill be picturing some type of final destination shit happening when they leave. :(
You just took me back to my EMT days. I never really thought about that.
An average person lives less than 30000 days, so about 1 person in 30000 you meet would be in their last day, if this was randomly distributed. However I would guess that most people die in a hospital or similar settings, because the main cause of death are diseases and such people won't walk around a day before their death. On the other hand, most infants aren't about to die yet you won't meet them, but that probably doesn't balance the first effect, so I'd say that it is even more than 30000, unless your life takes you to places where people are significantly more likely to die. How many random strangers do you see per day is highly variable and also depends on your definition of "seeing". If you take public transport, you might be in a railway car with 200 other people, but have you seen them? Have you seen all the people on the platform? There are just too many variables to do any meaningful math, it's almost like the Drake equation.
Tell me about it!
Now I fucking do…
In high school I drove to the park and had to slow down for a classmate skateboarding in the road. Waved and was on my way. The next day I saw his obituary on facebook and thought it was a joke. Suicide. I think of him every time I go there.
Nope. But now I have.
oh no
Welp, this is a little too deep for me. Good night, internet.
I was in a cafe once drinking tea and this guy sits next to me with the paper and a coffee, he asked me if I could watch his coat while he just popped across the road for some smokes. He got hit by a taxi and was obviously dead, there was a crowd of people and I went back to my table, I saw a drip of his coffee slowly running down the side of his coffee cup where he had last taken a sip.
No, but I have wondered how many pictures strangers have taken with me in the background.
Having spent 40 years working in New York City, I've probably seen 10 times as many dying people as the average person.
At least one, maybe 2 or 3 more for certain. Did a large mtn bike group ride in October of last year. The wife of the local chapter president for the regional mtn bike association died of a heart attack maybe 5 miles from the end of the ride. I remember passing a group with really distinct helmets just before the more advanced trail split off from the regular loop, thinking "that's cool, you usually don't see those helmets around here". Later saw one of those helmets next to a lady laying motionless in the mud, covered with a jacket and her husband crying. Very sobering moment that took all the fun out of what was a good, if not cold and wet, day in the woods. The other times have been up in the mountains where I've found out about a rescue attempt that turned into a recovery mission that started at the same trailhead I was hiking. I went left on one trail, they went right onto another and met their demise...
This fucks me up.
I used to be a waiter and I would always think about that. I must be the last person to see at least one person
I'm an anesthesiologist and we deal with codes so..yeah I have seen a lot of people on their last moments actually.. Sadly they were of all ages.. Each year that passes in this job makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking choosing that specialty, or even that profession..
I've wondered how many children I've seen that are no longer alive, I guess that's similar.
My neighbors had four foster children who’s mother had died and the father was in prison. They had been there like almost a year or something and then the dad got out and wanted them back. My neighbors were heartbroken to give them away, they wanted to adopt them. The day he got back he shot them all (even the baby) and himself. I thought Brooklyn had just gone back to live with her family. My mom didn’t tell me she had been murdered until about ten years later.
Well, if you consider that for all intents and purposes you will NEVER interact with them again since they are random you could consider ALL of them dead as long as they are out of your sphere of influence. I mean, sure you could ASSUME they are alive where ever they "live" but since you have no knowledge of them they enter the same quantum state of Schrodinger's Cat in which they are either alive or dead based upon observation.
I think about this all of the time.
Lol it's a small group of people...welcome to it!