Whoah. That should have killed me. Am I alive right now?
Close calls are scary. They really put your entire life into perspective, since it could have ended in this moment.
When you're on the other side of one of these, how do you feel? Grateful? Depressed? Scared? All of the above?
u/Kelvin_Inman asked:
What is your "...and I should have died, but didn't." story?
Here are those stories.
Sanguine Savior
Got blood poisoning as a kid the red line was almost to my heart if my aunt hadn't of seen my infected finger and popped it then told my mom to take me to the docs .... doc said less than 24 hours it would have reached my heart. I was 5, my mom is legally blind so she would never have seen it.
Aaaaaand We're Back
At 6 I was in the back seat of my dads trans-am. Turning left, a truck ran a red light and hit us going 80 mph. The back hatch of our car broke all over me and I was ejected out of the car where I landed on my head in the middle of the highway. I was pronounced dead but the emt somehow revived me. Had a grandmal seizure for 45 minutes in the hospital until I eventually went into a coma for 4 days. Woke up and couldn't walk or talk. Broke 3 ribs and my hip. Spent a month in the hospital.
I'm 24 now and you'd never know I went through that. I do have seizures now and short term memory loss but other than that I'm doing well!
Havin' The Shivers
Had a windsurfing accident, was blown 8+ miles out to sea with only the board. Was supposed to be a hard freeze that late November evening. About 45 minutes before dark, I heard the coast guard vessel looking for me. I had already resigned myself to death, as only one other person knew I was out there, and as far as I knew he had gotten himself into the same situation. Its really amazing how calm you get and how the fear of death leaves when you've become sure that its going to happen. Or it could have been the hypothermia...
You Gotta Better Chance Of Being Struck...Hey Wait A Sec
I was struck by lightning when I was 15 while hiking in the mountains between North Carolina and Tennessee. It started hailing afterward, I couldn't move but my friends pulled me under a tree and wrapped me in an aluminum blanket because I was going hypothermic in July. The hail pelted holes in the blanket, the hail above us on the mountain melted and ran down where we were laying, soaking us, and thunder rumbled all around for half an hour or more, threatening. I don't think I'll ever hear thunder and not shudder. Also, I haven't seen the color black ("black's not a color" shut up) since then, believe I am permanently flash-burned. At night or when I close my eyes, I see a million dots of faint colored light like static. Anyway. I survived. It happened 14 years ago.
In The Nick Of Time
I went to the hospital after several days of the worst fatigue I've ever experienced.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and a temporary condition called diabetic ketoacidosis, and I was told it was a miracle I brought myself to the hospital because I was mere hours away from a diabetic coma and possibly death.
The River Don't Flow For You
Myself, another guide, and eight 10-year-old campers were stuck in a class 5 rapid for about two minutes. The current underneath was pushing the raft so that it was at nearly a 90 degree angle. I was holding on to as many campers as I could, finally and thankfully we broke out of the rapid.
The other boats had turned around and other staff were already getting ready for a rescue mission.
If our raft had flipped around on to us, there would have been a very high chance we would have gotten stuck circulating in the rapid with the current under the raft, ultimately drowning.
Who Would Have Known?
I'm quite an athletic person, always doing some kind of sport. When I was 20, I started feeling exhausted all the time. My heart would start pounding like crazy when I only so much as stood up and it felt like I had a stone resting on my chest.
Stupid me thought it was a cold, because I was young and fit and couldn't possibly have anything serious.
I ran around like that for three weeks, forcing myself to do sport, even went hiking when I visited my dad. He was shocked because I could barley walk without panting, so he brought me to a doctor. Turned out I had a massive pulmonary embolism (thanks, birth control) the doctor was surprised I was still alive.
This Is Why We DON'T Play Near Train Tracks
I was riding a dirtbike, and attempting to jump a set of railroad tracks. I was running about 45-50 mph, and coming from behind a factory. There was a train coming straight thru at speed, and I didn't see it in time. It knocked me over 100 feet down the line. I came to rest with my right leg and arm up against the rail. Took the train over a mile to get stopped, and I didn't lose any body parts. :) That was over 30 years ago. I have pain that reminds me every day, but I've been blessed, as it hasn't stopped me from doing the things I enjoy.
I'm Stumped
I was skipping school and walking back to my house. My step dad happened to be in the back garage getting some tools for work and would have seen me if I took the usual route home. I knew he would leave soon so I thought i would just hop the neighbors fence so he wouldn't see me go into the house.
As I jumped the fence my shoe lace got caught and i fell face first to the ground. When I looked up there was a tree stump two inches from my face. If i would have fell on it I would have broken my neck and died.
I'm still convinced in a parallel universe I died that day.
Just Call Me Beth March
On the last day of first grade, near the end of the day, our teacher walked us around to tour the second grade rooms and meet the second grade teachers. As a little nerd, I was STOKED. But, I was also running a fever so high that I was drenched in sweat. Just before we were set to check out the classrooms, I finally admitted to my teacher that I wasn't feeling well. She took one look at my sweaty little face and red, rashy arms and shipped me off to the nurse.
I fell asleep on the nurses cot and woke up to my mom helping me out to the car. We went to the pediatrician, who, seeing my fever hit 103 and my dark red full body rash, for some reason told my mom it was the flu and sent us packing.
After a day at home, my fever hit 104 and my mom plunged me into a bathtub full of ice. When that did basically nothing and my fever hit 106, she took me to the hospital.
At the hospital they took me back immediately, a nurse hoisted me up on the counter and stabbed two IVs in, while another nurse told my mom if she had waited another 10 minutes to bring me in I would have likely died.
I spent a week in the hospital pumped to the brim with fluids. So pumped, in fact, that the skin on my ears burst and my face swelled to an unrecognizable blob.
Was it the flu, you ask? It was scarlet fever. Maybe the full body, dark red rash should've piqued the pediatricians interest but I guess not 🙄
Run The Plank
I was a pretty quiet and coward kid so I mostly kept it to myself in every situation but one summer when I was 10, my cousins and sibling were jumping to the sea from the pier and they also cheered me to do the same. It was all fun and games, everyone was having fun and I decided to just jump one last time before leaving. I was pretty hyped by how brave I was.
So, I started to run on the pier for a final epic jump towards the sea while everyone was distracted and well, I slipped. My head hit the pier's edge hard and knocked me out as I slipped into the sea. Apparently my dad noticed that I was gone after awhile, quickly jumped to the water and pulled me out and I remember waking up puking everywhere... I don't know how was it but according to everyone there, I looked like I was already dead.
I survived and here I am!
110 In The Shade
I was driving from North Alabama to Nashville (about 2 hours away if you drive fast), it was almost midnight when I left. About halfway there I fell asleep behind the wheel. I have no clue how long I was out but I woke up right before I slammed into the back of a semi. Was wide awake for the rest of the drive. I really should have died cause falling alseep cause me to speed up to 110ish.
The Ice You Skate Is Gettin' Pretty Thin
I was hit in the head on accident with an aluminum baseball bat. In shockingly sober antics my friends and I were pitching chunks of ice to be shattered by a batter. I set one up on a tee but did not back away far enough and was caught on the backswing. Once my brain felt swollen and I started bleeding I knew immediately what happened and focused on remembering as much as possible and playing little brain teasers in my head because I read somewhere that brain activity during a trauma can protect against permanent damage. I was driven to the hospital and got a CT scan where I was by God's grace pronounced not even concussed. Just a chunk of flesh missing in my forehead. I still however don't like baseball bats now and I hate to watch them swing.
Sporty And Speedy
Head on collision on the freeway. A sporty car that I kept seeing speeding and weaving in and out of traffic ended up hitting my back bumper turning me 180 degrees and getting hit by a v8 dodge right after. My car (v4 sentra) was crushed. I did break and shatter a few body parts but I should be dead or at least not able to walk.
Phantom Vibrate Saved Me
Walking home from the store at 10pm one night, I walked down the iron stairs and was about to step out from behind a cement wall, into the ally, ( short cut I take all the time), when my phone vibrated. I paused mid step to fish it out of my pocket. At the exact second, (didn't even have time to pull my phone out), a car blew by doing 50 or so through the ally, about a foot from me. I felt the wind on my face as it sped by! ( didn't hear a THING!) Had my phone not vibrated I would not be here now.
Oddly when I checked later, (after I could move again!), there were no missed calls or texts.
Well This Time, It Was
Waited about four hours to go the hospital during a massive widow maker heart attack. I've had panic attacks for years and been so embarrassed going to the ER over nothing. I was in a ton of pain starting in my stomach and then into back and up in chest. I thought it was just bad stomach pain that spread and my panic was making it worse. The funny and sad thing about it was I've panicked a million that I was having a heart attack and the one time I wasn't thinking that, it was a heart attack. I just thought at 39 there'd be no way I could be having one.
Being an emergency responder is a high-stress job.
It's a career with long, laborious hours.
There is always a hint of danger. And death is always around the corner.
So we as a society could try to help these people out and not put ourselves in unnecessary danger.
Redditor Diligent-Log6805wanted the rescue workers out there to tell us about the times they rescued people. They asked:
"Emergency responders of reddit, what are some dumb things that have lead to an emergency situation?"
These workers and the world already has enough trouble without my stupid.
"So... was she impressed?"
"Kid driving his new truck down a residential street, wet from a recent rain, lost control and hit a parked car, overcorrected and rolled it once back onto its wheels up onto a lawn. He told the fire chief he had gunned it to impress his girlfriend and the chief just looked at him and asked 'So... was she impressed?'"
AntiMacro
Ricky
"I had a client once who was basically Ricky from Trailer Park Boys, loud, obnoxious, hilarious and every second word was some Maritime slang or a derivative of 'f**k.' He has been on daily eye drops for decades for dry eyes, sure ok cool. I hear screaming down the hall and run in and he's wedged against the wall and the bed just screaming 'I f**ked up boys, I dunno what the f**k is f**king happening but It's f**ked."
"Turns out he mistakenly put Jublia which is an antifungal ointment for toenails in his eye thinking it was his eye drops. The strangest part was the bottle has this miniature sponge at the end so you soak the sponge then paint it on like a gel...he painted this antifungal ointment onto his eye which immediately went red and angry then proceeded to do the other one."
"So he's at the eyewash station and I'm talking to poison control and they are pretty stunned because they have zero data on what happens to a human eyeball when it's painted in antifungal. I can hear the staff at the other end kind of snickering under her breath and she asks can you compare and contrast the eyes? Well... he put it in both eyes. The line goes silent because I can tell she is howling. Guy was totally fine but it was a standout for sure."
krzysztoflee
Will they show?
"Responded to a call of two minors being kidnapped and their parents being beaten in front of them and then taken someplace else. One was around three years and the other one was six. They were held captive in an apartment out of hundreds of residential apartments which not easy to locate, upon reaching there we found out that the boy six was just playin' with us to see if we would actually respond. Their parents were so embarrassed by all of that and vowed to not give them mobile until they are adults."
erectilereptilelol
Bowled Over
"When I was an EMT in NYC years ago we had a call for a man 'unresponsive.' We entered an upscale apartment that was a hoard: floor to ceiling newspapers and magazines, just a mess. The woman who called said her brother was in his bedroom sick."
"We entered his room and it was pretty obvious that he had already passed away. She had placed a bowl under his mouth because he had hemorrhaged which had coagulated the day before it was crazy. We asked her why she hadn’t called sooner and she said thought he’d get better?!"
"The joke around the house was 'if you have to put a bowl under a relative who is bleeding from the mouth, call 911. Don’t wait.' Never thought we’d have to advise anyone to do that. But there ya go. Also, it was Thanksgiving. Didn’t eat any cranberry sauce that year."
Sufficient-Swim-9843
God Only Knows
"Had a guy call because he had the cure to Covid and needed a ride to the local education hospital so he could share it. Dude was so high on meth He ended up having 4 or 5 binders worth of scientific looking notes. God only knows what was actually in them."
Flame5135
Wow, people really need to get a grip. Of their minds.
"Sparky"
"One of my old bosses once built a new shed in his back yard, to replace his old, worn-out one. He moved everything from the old one to the new one, then decided that the best way to remove the old one was by burning it down. He ended up with no sheds and the nickname 'Sparky.'"
Wadsworth_McStumpy
Dead in the living room...
"Paramedic here. We responded to this 54 year old having chest pain. Man was having a heart attack. Dude didn't want to go to the hospital because it too early in the day. That's it. We tried to convince him to go. Got the ER doc to talk to him and he wouldn't budge. He signed a Refusal. Later that same night, his family found him. Dead in the living room. We got to him and started CPR, meds, everything. Dude didn't make it. When we advise you to go to the hospital, go."
Chaprito
Bad Ideas
"Got called to a shooting. A guy says he received a text message from an anonymous number saying his brother has been shot. He checks all the hospitals with no luck. He goes to his brother's apartment but gets no response at his door but sees his car and can hear the TV on. We get there, attempt to get an answer at the door."
"Eventually we kick the door in to make sure he wasn't dying in his apartment. We boot the door, announce police, and find him asleep in his bed. The guy tells us that he got a new phone number and decided to mess with his brother by texting him he had been shot. He then fell asleep and forgot about the text and was woken up by us. So many wasted resources on his idiotic prank."
TheDOC816
The Swimmer
"Got called to a priority job. The caller was kayaking in a lake and said that there was an unresponsive male in the water. So off we went, lights and sirens. We requested paramedics and fire to attend as well for the rescue operation. There were about 6 emergency vehicles attending including a rescue boat. We got there within minutes and met the caller who showed us where the guy was."
"He was just swimming, minding his own business. The caller said he was unresponsive, but really he was just ignoring her. Had a chat with the guy, he seemed alright, said he swims here every day and likes the quiet. No issues. Would have been nice if the caller told the operator that he was still conscious and swimming rather than 'unresponsive.'"
amazingbecauseitis
Chew Slowly
"Well, I was taking a lady home from dialysis and she decided to eat a snickers in the back of the ambulance, and she started choking. Had to do the heimlich, and tell her to finish her food at home."
HotSoupInYourA**
If it's not a true emergency dial 311. Please.
I hated science classes.
As soon as I could I ran.
But it follows me.
Because science can be downright disturbing.
That's why I blocked out so many of the details.
Redditor Flimsy_Finger4291wanted to compare notes on all the frightening facts that are a definitive. They asked:
"What's the scariest thing that science has proven real?"
As if knowledge isn't scary enough, let's her more...
Hello Terry
"Some tumors have teeth, hair and even eyes."
Twat_Waffle_Stomp
"My sister had one minus the eyes! It was cantaloupe sized on one of her ovaries before it was found. She named it Terry the Teratoma."
Karina_is_my_cat
Hungry Bacteria
"Brain-eating amoebas."
dark_n_lovely_qu33n
"My best friend and bunk mate from summer camp died from one of those when I was in 7th grade. Happened so quickly, we were a week into camp and he got really sick. They gave us all heavy meningitis shots because they didn’t know what it was and within a few days he was dead. Turned out to be a brain eating amoeba."
"Edit: strangely enough on the same day he started getting sick one of the lifeguards that was sitting out in a boat waiting for the next group of kids for what we called Trojans Vs. Spartans day had a seizure, fell off the boat and drowned. Only deaths they’d ever had in the 50+ years the camp had been open."
Csharp27
Far Far Away
"The size of our galaxy, how many other galaxies there are and how far away they are. When you can actually see something that incomprehensible.."
Jfonzy
"The nearest star to us would take the Voyager 70,000 years to reach. The nearest galaxy to ours would take the Voyager 749,000,000 years. If we some how managed to take on the monstrous task of speed of light travel it would still take 25,000 years to reach the nearest galaxy. And it's even further apart after you read this. Wild stuff!"
ConqueredCorn
Head Changes
"How the brain is literally rewired and chemically altered by childhood neglect and abuse."
petalumaisreal
"It's genuinely kinda freaky, playing a puzzle game, and noticing how quickly you're getting better at it. The kind of puzzles that were a real blocker in the beginning become baby-easy after like an hour of playing puzzles like it."
LtLabcoat
"My sister faced horrible abuse at the hands of our father, and she has been working through it with multiple therapists over the last 10 years and she is only now starting to get her life back. I feel like she was robbed at a fair chance at life because of our a**hole father."
Pehdazur
Awake
"Prions, horrific and totally unpredictable."
geordiesteve520
"Fatal familial insomnia is a prions disease where you can't sleep anymore, you just stay awake until your brain deteriorates and you die."
DrinknEspresso
Now I can never UNKNOW about prions. Perfect.
Days gone by...
"Ageing. I'm content with death but the idea of my body growing old, frail and eventually falling apart before the end game gives me goosebumps."
EvidenceOfInnocence
Bursts
"Gamma ray bursts. No warning, no escape, no defense, no survivors."
Swampwolf42
"If you're talking about supernovas if the star isn't too close the gamma burst would probably only destroy some part of our ozone layer. And gamma radiation is actually the least lethal out of all types of waves."
Broccoli_sauce24
Sizzle
"Entropy. Time shall consume all things. Inevitable heat death of the universe."
Revolutionary_Elk420
"I personally want the 'Big Crunch' to be true. That instead of fizzling out it all gets sucked back into an infinitely small/dense particle and then another Big Bang happens. It’s my explanation for the multiverse. It’s all one timeline. Just infinitely long."
ChoppyWAL99
They're Watching
"More like a theory, the 'orangutan paradox,' when we film a documentary on orangutans, they can’t realize that we are observing them, yet they are the most intelligent species of their category, so aliens might be watching us and we are as oblivious as an orangutan."
Time_Succotash
Fade 2 Silent
"That hearing is the last sense to leave, when dying."
User Deleted
Well that is the antithesis of comfort. Life is so fun.
Ever since Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope opened on May 25, 1977, a devoted fanbase developed.
And that fanbase has opinions.
Lots and lots of opinions.
Redditor Ebo8000 wanted to know:
"What is your most controversial take on Star Wars?"
Doors
"LASERS LOCK DOORS. LASERS OPEN DOORS. LASERS KNOW WHAT YOU WANT THE DOOR TO DO."
- SlamVanDamn
"But if you get past the door and close it behind you and you don’t want anyone to follow you through it…"
"…you shoot the bloody door panel!"
- treeonwheels
"Also, f*cking hell, we're in the future (or in the past), whatever, and people have better technology."
"Why put the door control RIGHT NEXT to the door? Put the door control system in a breaker box."
"Build every door so in case of malfunction they all shut closed (after all, they're in space and you don't want to lose air in decompression, do you?)"
"Shoot the breaker box, now the whole floor is closed until someone can figure out what happened."
"Almost look like those doors just exist as dramatic elements..."
- smegma_yogurt
The Past
"I’d like a film about when the Republic was at its height. 1,000 generations is 25,000 years and we’ve had 9 movies about the last 60."
- Musickat18
The Future
"Not sure if controversial but they need to take the franchise and yeet it 200 years in the future."
"I'm tired of the Empire era where they need to justify why more than 2 Jedi and 2 Sith exist at one moment alongside knowing everything is pointless until Luke leaves the farm."
- Alandrus_sun
Design Fail? No!
"The Death Stars weren't badly designed they were just badly managed."
"Yes, designing them assuming large scale assaults was stupid given the political state of the galaxy but the second Death Star wasn't even finished so that doesn't count, it's all Palpatine's fault. As for the first one that was finished, the Alliance made three runs on the exhaust port."
"The first was called off before they made it to the trench, the second failed and the third was carried out by space Jesus which isn't exactly fair."
"All in all it sounds like a fairly effective defence when you consider the design philosophy."
- Engeneus
Cool Factor
"The entire universe has a cool factor that outweighs the atrocious storytelling."
- Ozty
"Bro imagine the following movies, but if they were in Star Wars universe."
"Magnificent 7 - A Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Ex-Imperial, Pilot, Wookie, a Droid, and Lawman team up to defend a town against pirates"
"Dredd - Two Jedi climb up an apartment block to confront a new dark side user who has mental control of the entire apartment block"
"Supernatural (T.V. Show) - A Jedi and their apprentice go around and solve and defeat Dark Side Force spots—where the Force consolidates from emotions and creates foul creatures to fight"
"Top Gun - But it's you know, Wedge or something"
"Ford versus Ferrari - But it's podracing or swoop racing"
- BoutsofInsanity
Ships
"Something about the ships in the original series always felt more like real ships than in any of the later movies, despite the objectively better effects of the later films."
"Some of this is probably the use of models (i.e. actual three dimensional objects), but I think there is some critical difference in the design that makes them feel more real (probably because they were designed to be things that would actually work as models)."
"Whatever it is, I LOVED the ships in the original series and never really liked any of the new ones."
- UnspecificGravity
"The original trilogy changed the world by showing a universe in space that was dirty and lived in. The special effects from the later movies did not recognize this."
Boba who?
"Boba Fett is an oddly overrated background character, and even after watching The Book of Boba Fett, I don’t really care about him."
- imidoesonlyfans
"He was never a character. He was a cool helmet."
- JimPlaysGames
"He was a cool jetpack too."
- RipperFromYT
Time for the weather...
"Han is actually older than Obi-Wan due to Time Dilation."
- Snowbofreak
"Time dilation in a universe where every planet and moon has the same gravity and atmosphere?"
- suman_issei
"And just 1 biome."
- DogShampoop
"That way they only need one Weather Channel per planet."
- The_Most_Superb
"And over to Klaatu for the Tatooine weather report. Klaatu?"
"It's still sunny."
- Budsygus
These are the droids we're looking for.
"Star Wars is actually the life story of C-3PO—think about it."
- jonguy77
"I disagree. I think its R2-D2's story. He had a much greater presence in Episode 1, 2 and 3, and got the same amount of screen time as C-3PO in 4, 5 and 6."
‐ MacGregor_Rose
Fan is short for fanatic.
"Fans ruined the whole franchise."
- SeaworthinessNo5209
Ouch...
So, did your controversial Star Wars opinion make the list?
Death is a subject many people shy away from because what they don't know beyond our realm of existence can be intimidating.
Hollywood hasn't helped, as movies and TV have typically portrayed death as something sinister and violent.
How could anyone be convinced death is a peaceful transition, and that what awaits on the other side is actually an unimaginable utopia?
Curious to hear strangers' thoughts about death, Redditor GoodNess2020 invoked a quote by an iconic literary figure and asked:
"Mark Twain once said, 'I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.' Why do you agree/disagree with his statement?"

People clarified what actually terrified them most about death
The Process
"I don't fear being dead. I fear dying."
– magicbluemonkeydog
"Yeah, that's usually the issue. It's why that quote doesn't mean much, to a lot of people."
"It's not a fear of eventually dying and not existing anymore. It's the act of dying itself. He didn't constantly die for all of time. He just wasn't alive."
– appleparkfive
Concept Of Loss
"To have not existed for billions of years is to have spent billions of years never knowing loss. To die is to know loss."
"If you look into a new bank account and see zero dollars, it’s nothing. If you look into a bank account that once had a million dollars and see there’s nothing in there, you’ll know it’s absence."
– -CrestiaBell
People provided an analogy to articulate what ceasing to exist must feel like.
It's About Time
"Time is only relevant to you when you are alive. He is right. Have you ever been sedated for surgery? You go under, and then instantly wake up and procedure is done.... or you died so no worries."
– 20190419
Consciousness Is Life
"You won’t be feeling anything in death though is the thing. That infinite/instant sensation was a living feeling, you just weren’t conscious for it - your body experienced it anyways. No body, no experience."
– Parradog1
Like Being Under
"That is very true, but for me, that's the closest amalgamation of what it probably feels like."
"No one can tell you what actual death will be like. It's impossible for you to experience nothingness."
"Thinking about death can be paralysing sometimes, and when I remember that the closest thing i can link as an experience I had, being put under, was actually sort of pleasant. I then think maybe death will be like that, and honestly it doesn't seem that bad."
– IamEclipse
When In Deep Sleep
"Yeah in contrast to sleep where you can actually feel like time has passed when you wake up."
– GreyFoxMe
Think Line Between Death And Slumber
"As CGPGrey puts it, your bed might very well be a suicide machine."
"Given our lack of understanding for the fundamental processes of our sentience, it's entirely possible that when you fall asleep, your mind is functionally killed, disassembled, analyzed, sorted, tweaked, and adjusted by your biology, before being reassembled when you wake. Every night."
– Mazon_Del
People opened up about their insecurities around the concept of death.
Fear Of What Comes Next
"I’m just paranoid that something does happen after death and it’s just based on one thing that you didn’t know about."
– PsychoDog_Music
The Circle Of Death
"There’s nothing to fear in oblivion. Unless, of course, your consciousness survives death. If so, it would be reasonable to fear the sensation of consciousness without senses, suspended alone in the cosmos, with no one to hear you, and no way to make yourself known. No reference point for counting time – a count that does not matter anyway in a literal eternity."
"You might wish that you still had a corporeal form, only so that you could make your mouth move to express your terror, to make the universal form of a terrified scream – the form of a letter O."
"But you won’t be able to. You just won’t!"
"This has been the Children’s Fun Fact Science Corner. Brought to you by shame, loneliness, and the letter..."
"O....."
– CecilSpeaksInItalics
When Faith Fails You
"what do you mean I'm going to hell?! I was a good person and attended church regularly!"
"Ah yes, but you failed to put a blue feather in your hat and then turn in circles the times praising God Almighty on the fifth Sunday after your twelfth birthday. To the pit with you!!!"
– phormix
There is an poignant episode from the Twilight Zone that brought me a sense of peace surrounding the concept of death.
Death was embodied by a handsome police officer who had been shot–played by a young Robert Redford–and begs to be let into the home of an elderly woman who had been living in perpetual fear of meeting "Mr. Death."
As the episode continues, she discovers much to her dismay that she welcomed Death into her home, but he warmly reassures her there is nothing to fear.
The episode ends with her finally offering her hand to Death after much protest, and they peacefully walk out together, arm in arm, into the light.
It was sweet and beautifully done. The 1962 episode was titled, "Nothing in the Dark."
That's how I imagine it to be.
A dashing Prince of Darkness telling me it's time to join him in guiding me to the other side.