What’s Something You’re Glad You Said Before It Was Too Late?
Working in a cemetery and crematory you learn a lot about human nature. Some lessons are heavy, some are surprisingly comforting, and a few are so funny you feel a little guilty laughing.
One thing that comes up again and again is this: almost everyone remembers the last important thing they said to someone they loved. Sometimes it’s whispered in a quiet hospital room. Sometimes it’s blurted out in a Target parking lot. But the tone is always the same — relief.
It’s never, “I’m so glad we discussed the weather forecast for Thursday.” It’s the big stuff. The real stuff. The things you can’t cram into a Hallmark card without making everyone at the family barbecue cry.
The Greatest Hits of “I’m Glad I Said That”
A man once told me that, just a week before his father passed, he finally admitted, “You were right about the car. And… about pretty much everything else.” He said that his father laughed so hard the nurse came in to check his oxygen.
Another woman patched things up with her sister by saying, “I miss you. And you still make the best lasagna.” A humble sentence, but it was apparently all the olive oil and garlic they needed to bury years of silence.
And one grandmother, famous for her bluntness, told her grandson, “I’m proud of you, even though you never learned how to park straight.” (He still parks crooked. But now it’s a point of family pride.)
The Truth About Goodbyes
We think of goodbyes as grand, cinematic speeches, but most of the time they’re just small truths spoken out loud.
“I forgive you.”
“I love you, even when you’re impossible.”
“You were my favorite dance partner.”
They don’t have to be perfect or eloquent. You can mix a heartfelt confession with a light roast — sometimes humor is the only way we can say the hard things without falling apart.
Say it now. Even if it’s in the grocery store checkout line.
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Say it now. Even if it’s in the grocery store checkout line. —
Don’t Wait for the Hospital Room
Here’s the part that matters: you don’t have to wait for the final chapter to say what needs to be said. Say it now. Say it in the kitchen while the coffee’s brewing. Say it in the car with the windows down and the radio too loud. Say it in line at the grocery store if you have to.
No one says, “I wish I’d kept that to myself.” But we have met far too many who would trade anything for one more chance to speak up.
So if someone comes to mind while you’re reading this, don’t overthink it. Call them. Text them. Drop the stubbornness. Your words might be the closure they didn’t even know they needed — and the peace you didn’t know you were missing.
Life is unpredictable. Love doesn’t have to be.