What You Need To Tell Those You Love ... Right Now

By Charles Toy

I don't know when this was. It was over 15 years ago. I was watching Charlie Rose on PBS. He was talking to the President of Hospice, who was a women but I don't know her name.

Charlie asked her what were the things people most often wish they had said to a loved one before they died but never had the chance. She said that studies had actually been done on that question and there is a definitive answer.

There are five things people most often regret they didn't get a chance to say to their departed loved one, and they are:

1. Thank-You
2. I forgive you, for anything and everything.
3. Please forgive me, for anything and everything.
4. I love you
5. Good-bye

Number one depends on the person you are talking to. If it's your mother it would be thank you for being my mother and all the things you've done for me.

I've shared this knowledge with some of my close friends over the years. Now I've shared it with you. Don't regret that you never told your loved ones these things. Tell them as soon as you possibly can, and if you're holding on to a grudge let it go. Life is way too short and we all do stupid things.

15 years ago my Mom vanished from this earth, overnight. One day there. Next day gone. She was 56, slim and trim, and in perfect health as far as any of us knew.

DTV that turned in to a pulmonary embolism. Boom. Gone. None of us had ever heard of any of that before then.

I had frequently told her I loved her so I was good in that area.  I had told her at some point in the year prior that she and my Dad were the best parents I could have hoped for. I think that counts as Thank-you.

I told her the other things explicitly about 15 minutes after her heart stopped, at the hospital.

I believe she heard them.

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