A lot of times when the topic of regret comes around, we focus on what we regret not doing in life. This time, the question is flipped.
Redditor Appleseedbloom asked:
"What is something you have always regretted doing?"
Some people had regrets about not taking better care of themselves, some had regrets about important relationships in their lives. Sharing these moments with others on Reddit seemed to really bring the community together.
Thought the regret was there, sharing it on the internet seemed to make so many people feel better that they weren't alone in that struggle. And it was nice to get it off of their chest.
Here are some of those regrets that are not such bad advice to follow.
Debt.
"Getting into debt. I can't see a way out."
"I just got back into debt. I expect home ownership to be worth it, though."
This person was kind enough to share how they are getting through their debt.
"Consolidation."
"This was a life saver. Now instead of like five payments a month, I was able to get a loan that consolidated everything into one payment."
"I went through my bank of 20 years. I had never missed a payment with them and was a loyal customer. I applied for a loan online through the website and was denied. The following week, I called in and was approved within 1-2 business day. I didn't get the amount I asked for - but I got enough to pay of all my debt at the time which was only two credit cards. And I needed some dental work."
"Don't get a Capital One credit card. They will f*ck you over with a few things. Really high membership fees which you can't opt out of. And insurance which was $89 a month! I tried canceling this and was told no. So, when I got the loan, I said fuck you C1, and stayed with my bank. Cancelled and paid off the C1 card."
"The terms of the agreement was a 7 year loan. It's been 3 years of making payments. I've already paid off $8,000 because about once or twice a year, I'll throw in a "lump" sum payment. This shaved off 2 years - and 2 years of interest."
"I'm not saying this solution is for everyone. But it definitely worked wonders for me. It was a life changer."
- jenskal
Protect those ears, kids.
"Not protecting my hearing."
"I'm 52 and have had tinnitus for 20 years now. I should've worn earplugs when mowing the grass, going to concerts or loud movies. I shouldn't have turn my Walkman up to 11."
"Wow. Thank you for your story. I'm 54. Just started getting some ringing. It should be a lot worse. Concerts especially and very loud bars. The one thing that saved me was turning down my headphones. I got my first walkman in 1981."
"Don't turn your headphones too loud, kids. Also, once your ears adjust, turn it down even more. It will sound the same. If you don't, It will fuck you up."
"Also…get some good headphones…preferably noise cancelling if you frequent loud places….like Sony xm4, Bose quiet comforts, etc."
"Good headphones should allow you to hear details even at low volumes. If you like bass get a set tuned for bass or use an equalizer to enhance, but definitely don't crank all the volume just to get a little more bass."
"Active noise canceling might be bad for long term use so buyer beware. (You can also just turn it off most of the time…those cans I listed still sounded great without it.)"
- 8ry0n
Standing by mom.
"When my parents split up my mom had to raise us by herself and we were really poor."
"Eventually we had to get on food stamps to survive. My mom was devestated. She was a very proud woman and was working two jobs but it wasn't enough and it absolutely crushed her to have to get assistance, it made her feel like a failure who couldn't take care of her own kids."
"I remember we were in the grocery store and getting ready to pay. She was going to use food stamps to pay and she was so ashamed that she turned to me and said "If you don't want to stand in line with me you don't have to". She was trying to spare me the embarrassment."
"So I didn't stand with her, I went off and looked at a toy or something. I remember looking back at her, she was sheepishly fixing her hair and trying not to look "poor" as she worked up the courage to face the cashier."
"I have regretted walking away so many times over the years. I was just a kid, but I wish I could go back in time to go stand next to her and tell her how proud I am to be her son and how thankful I was for the sacrifices she made just to keep food on the table for us."
"It honestly breaks my heart every time I think about it."
- moby323
"Can I tell you something, as a mother that was once in that same situation? Whenever it came time to pay, I would always tell my daughter to go look at something for me. I was so embarrassed to have to use them (and this was a long time ago, so it was the actual Monopoly money looking food stamps that you had to count out and tear out of the booklets), I never ever wanted her to see it. Your mom is glad you walked away. I know it hurts you, and that says so much about you, but in that moment, it took a tiny bit of the pressure off of your mom not to have to be ashamed in front of you. You sound like a great person who has an amazing mama."
"I'd like to clarify, the shame wasn't necessarily about using public assistance. It was about knowing I had brought a child into a life that was bereft of all but the barest necessities and by the very action of paying with food stamps, people could look at me and decide that I was failing as a mother. Even that would have been bearable if I didn't agree with them. Their faces were just mirrors of my feelings about myself."
"For what it's worth, she turned out great. She graduated high school and college, the first person in our family to do either. She's a successful engineer, wife and mother. She has a comfortable life, and she loves me and we talk every day and see each other once a week for an overnight. To the person below who asked me why I would ever have a kid, it's a fair question. I was 16. I had a traumatic home life and statistically was pretty likely to end up right where I did. I waited too long to face it to be able to have an abortion, and I didn't put her up for adoption because the idea of giving her away and someone hurting her was more terrifying than keeping her. It's not an answer that paints me in a good light, but there you go."
Cigarettes.
"Becoming a nicotine addict. Cigarettes almost killed me twice in one year, when I was 34."
"I always thought I'd be one of those old af people still smoking. Reality had a different idea."
"When I was in undergrad I would be hanging out with friends and everyone would go outside and smoke. It was just me and this one other guy who didn't smoke and we would be left alone inside. He liked me and made me increasingly uncomfortable every time we were alone together. Eventually I started following people outside and they would always ask me if I wanted to bum one. They seemed weirded out when I said no and I didn't want to explain that our mutual friend was making me hella uncomfortable so I started to smoke as well. I really really regret it."
Drinking and Drugs.
"Drugs and drinking all day."
"Me too. Clean and sober now, but the damage is done and the consequences are for life."
Regretting it, but it lead to a realization.
"I regret and don't regret this one."
"I was 13 at a theme park with my class. It was our last day of school so we went to a big park to ride some rides."
"For no particular reason (other than thinking I was funny) I kept telling kids in my class 'Don't die' as they would climb onto a roller coaster. Some kids looked scared, some laughed."
"Finally a 20 something guy with his girlfriend also in line turned to me and shouted, 'Kid, shut the f*ck up,' his girlfriend quickly tried to calm him down and said, 'He's just a kid.' Boy did he look pissed."
"For me, it was like I had been slapped out of a trance. I thought 'Holy sh*t... I'm annoying?!' best thing to ever happen to me I think. But damn do I cringe when I think about it."
"[I did] similar sh*t when I was 9 to 11 and trying to be edgy. Every time I'd hear my parents finish talking to someone on the phone, I'd ask, 'So, who died?' At first they'd grit and say nobody, but after a while they got pissed and said along the lines of, 'You need to stop asking that. Don't ever ask stuff like that when I'm on the phone. It's disrespectful. You don't know if someone you know will die.'"
"I think they were much harsher words than that though. It hit me like a rock and I never did it again."
- xrihon
Some of these stories are heart breaking, but hopefully we can take a page from their book and bring it with us in life.
Though, it's hard to know what's worse: the regret of not doing something or the regret of doing something we shouldn't have.
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Lonely, heartbreaking, and often shocking confessions are often spilled out, sometimes to complete strangers, when someone is on their deathbed. We don't know what may be on the other side, and often to let ourselves go in peace we need to make peace with the world we are leaving.
There seems to be a link between the human conscience, or soul if you believe that, which needs to find harmony with the life lived before moving on to death. Some people found that the confessions helped to aid them in moving on to that next phase.
Redditor random_guy_somewhere wanted to know what confessions people have been told by the sick and dying. What shocked them or left a lasting impression?
On Ask Reddit, random_guy_somewhere asked:
"People who have heard deathbed confessions, what were some interesting ones?"
Some of these answers really pull at your heart strings, and some are even comical. Here were a few of the best answers.
"When I was in hospital, the guy in the bed next to me just asked to stop taking his meds as he was ready to die. Last thing I heard him say was 'There's no one waiting for me at home, so I'm going where they are.'"
"Wasn't really a shocking confession, just a lonely and heartbreaking one."
"I'm a nurse. If a patient refuses medical treatment, and they are deemed to be mentally fit to make their own decisions, we absolutely can not force them to continue with treatment. We explain the risks and what could happen if they don't get treated, if the patient says they still don't want treatment or medication, then that's tough sh*t for us. At the end of the day, the patient (or POA in cases of developmental /cognitive disabilities) has full body autonomy."
The concept of letting one pass on their own terms at the end of life or in the case of a terminal illness is a highly debated one. Some of the commenter began discussing the topic.
"I worked in aged care for a short time. One of our clients (patient) was in terrible condition and refused food and water, there was nothing we could do and she passed the next day. It's so sad we don't offer euthanasia. For that client it would've been more dignified than having to starving oneself."
"Also I imagine the experience of (chosen) death could be a lot more comfortable if helped along with morphine/fentanyl/etc. - going out in a pleasurable high rather than starving, dehydrated, and in enough pain to choose to end treatment."
Okay, this one is a little funny.
"Not my story but that of a hospice worker who spoke to my class. For those who don't know, hospice is a method of end-of-life care that focuses on alleviating the emotional & physical pain of a dying person to ease their passing rather than combatting their imminent death."
"One of her patients was a bed-bound woman in her 90s who was generally unresponsive but had flashes of recognition & engagement. It's hard to gauge the level to which unresponsive patients are detached from their surroundings, so they encourage family members to keep their company in hopes of soothing the patient. Now this patient was from a U.S. state that prided itself on its state university (and the university's football team). The woman's family had attended this university for four or five generations. During her hospice care, however, her great-granddaughter was the first in their family to decide to go to a different school—the rival state's university, in fact. Her family was supportive of her decision but often joked about her being the 'rebel' or 'Judas' or what-have-you."
"One day, they were all sitting around the woman's bedside, teasing the girl about her decision. Suddenly, the patient sat up, looked at her great-granddaughter, said, 'Traitor,' and f*cking DIED."
Was it really a confession?
"My grandfather had pretty terrible dementia and he kept making deathbed confessions as he knew he didn't have much time left. They were often about witnessing a murder and not telling anyone, but each time he confessed to us the details changed. It happened a couple of times a day over the course of his final week. We finally figured out that he would watch the local news and hear about these things happening then would think he had actually witnessed them."
- astrobre
"There I saw him with the gun standing over that man..... More at 5 o'clock"
Not her real mother.
"I didn't see it, but my aunt watched her elderly mother fall down the stairs and confess just before she died that she wasn't her biological mother."
"She told my aunt that her oldest sister was actually her mother. The sister had gotten pregnant too young and the mom said it was hers. A common way of handling it back then. She revealed it in her very last breath."
- usf_edd
"Jack Nicholson had this same thing happen to him. His mother was too young and grandmother raised him as her son and his mother as his sister he didn't find out till he was like 20?!?"
"The crazy thing is he found out from a journalist while being interviewed. They knew before him."
Handy-man confessions.
"I worked at a hospital in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small town near Munich for the last 14 years. My job there is not fancy at all, I move people around, throw the trash out and occasionally I take care of some handy-like work (fix a leaking shower head and stuff like that)."
"As you can imagine, I get to see a lot of patients that come and go, some of them pass away (such is life, I guess). I remember a few instances of people confessing to me their biggest regrets, here are some examples:
- "An old polish woman, told me that she regretted 'not sleeping with Hitler when she had the chance' (her words). I wanted to ask her about more context, but I was afraid, to be honest."
- "Another notable example was an old truck driver that used to work for an Easter Germany company, he told me that he once run over some kids with his truck and was too afraid to stop and check if they were ok."
- "Once another Polish lady told me that she used to be a prostitute during 2nd World War and that she slept with 'very high up' people in the government. She told me that she did not regret that part of her life, but that she could not tell anyone and that was a heavy emotional drag."
- - lyes_about_expertise
Final conversations.
"Not a deathbed confession, but the last conversation I had with my grandfather has always stuck with me. He had Parkinson's, and lived on a farm outside of town. One day he looked at me and said 'I'm getting too old to take care of Mom (my grandmother). I need you to do that for me, okay?' His health deteriorated pretty rapidly from that point onward."
"I still call my grandmother every single day, and try to get back home whenever I can to help out around the farm."
Worry was keeping him here.
"My grandpa passed away the day after my dad told him that everything was taken care of financially and healthcare wise for my grandma who had Alzheimer's. My grandpa had lung cancer and was still walking around and fighting and trying to live to take care of her, but basically let go once my dad told him he could."
"My dad had made sure everyone came and visited the week prior at some point because it could have been any day, which had been the case for the last several months. But it wasn't until he said, 'Dad, I have it covered. You have nothing to worry about. She is taken care of. Take care of yourself now.' That my grandpa let go."
These confessions are often personal, filled with guilt from not living the lives they wanted to or over a horrible deed they cannot undo.
Sometimes those confessions are the last piece of the puzzle that let us move on to the afterlife, whatever that may be. Whether you believe in the soul or not, it is an interesting phenomenon in the human experience of life transitioning to death.
Often is the case that the people in our lives are here only for a season. Sometimes that season lasts a few weeks, a few months, or even years, but season's come to a close eventually.
For whatever reason that may be, it can hurt to lose a friend, and sometimes it's necessary to move on from the relationship. It's important to have healthy relationships with our friends.
Redditor RawChickenHouse asked:
"Why did you stop being friends with someone?"
It's a part of life that many of us share, so the people of Reddit told us what that moment was like to cut off that toxic friend.
​A choice between a friend or a fiancé.
"She told me I had to choose between my friendship with her and my relationship with my fiancé. So, I cut ties with her."
How could she put her in that position?
"I had a talk with my best friend about this once. I brought up how if I was forced by an SO to choose between my SO or my best friend I would choose my best friend. He asked what if he made me choose between him and an SO. I told him I would hope he came to me with more reasons other than 'them or me' ultimatums. Ultimatums with no discussions before or ridiculous reason such as 'I find them annoying' is not a good trait."
- ansteve1
Hit too close to home.
"A friend had multiple kids with multiple girls and abandoned them all. Coming from a "went out for a pack of smokes" father myself, it really killed me to watch him do that. I bailed after the 3rd one, think he's 5 or 6 deep now."
A tough realization.
"When I realized that I was the bad friend."
- Redditor
"I've done this too. It was hard, and I miss my friend a lot, but I think she's doing better now that I'm out of her life. I'm trying to better myself so that I don't become that person to someone again."
"Wow. That's very mature actually. I sort of feel the same way- I've had friendships where we ended up mutually bad for each other, like they were rude and it made me rude back and I was like this is unhealthy. I'm working on how to manage anger and express how I feel instead of getting mad."
Poor mental health get's in the way.
"Had a bad depression for a very long time and on one really bad day I fell out to some of them and it never was the same after that. I lost like 80 or 90% of my friends because of my depressions (mostly because I neglected them)."
"I'm doing a lot better now but I still struggle to keep the depression away and I don't always win. It's been 12 years since it started and I think it will be a life long struggle and sometimes I am afraid I will end up with no friends left, but I try to stay positive and be good to the friends I have left."
- fluff58
If you're reading this and thinking, "I feel this too," you're not alone.
"This. I'm in and out of depressive episodes currently with a mental health crisis that shook many last week. I lost many friends alongside of significant other. I'm in it for the long haul."
- hallidc
Friends that don't really seem to care probably aren't real friends.
"[He] kept rescheduling plans if something else came along. I was a backup for him to chill with when he had nothing better to do. Yeah, I don't need you in my life if you're not going to put forth effort to hang out."
"Keep you heads up kings/queens. Your good people (probably) and have made better friends along the way."
- AbunaiXD
Best Excuses For Late Assignments That Were Actually True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"'I was a backup for him to chill with,' This was me majority of the time in 8th grade. Most people would rarely talk to me if there was anyone else around. Then when everyone's gone they act as if we're bros. One and a half years later, I'm the quiet kid. I'd still talk if the other person voluntarily talked first. Hope you have better friends now"
Red flags literally on display.
"She started dating this guy that, when I met him, had white supremacist tattoos, had a large Nazi SS on his motorcycle helmet and tank. She told me "Oh, he's harmless", but I couldn't vibe with that kind of person. She started going with him to parties and gatherings in rural compounds and in biker bars. He eventually ended up in jail for viciously assaulting her one night."
Hopefully some of these incidents can shed some light on your own situation. If you've ever had to let go of a toxic friend, you're definitely not alone and you deserve better.
"Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here."
No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, but sometimes we have to be. It's difficult to communicate something that we know will hurt someone or make them feel upset. A Redditor wanted to know what that news was that people had to share.
Reddit user Necessary-Thought-91 asked:
What's the hardest thing you've had to tell someone?
Often times, these conversations are around death or people who are dying. It is a harsh reality that we often have to face, as it is apart of life.
Some people had to tell truths about themselves that ended up changing their lives for the better.
Here's a few of those moments.
Losing a loved one.
"I had to (separately) tell my two young boys, my sister-in-law, and mother-in-law, that my wife (their mother/sister/daughter) had died. It's been over three years and thinking about it is still devastating."
"I had to tell my sister that our mother died. Worst phone call I've ever had to make by a longshot. I'm so sorry you lost your wife."
"I had almost the same. Had to tell my sister our brother took his life. I don't think I ever cried so hard ever. Devastating. Sorry for your loss."
"I had to tell my grandfather that he wasn't going to come home from the hospital."
"I had to tell my 20 year old nephew that his grandma wasn't coming home from the hospital. I'll never forget the look on his face. He walked into the bathroom, shut the door, and cried his heart out."
"Had to tell my dad the same thing. He had leukemia and his platelets were so low he ended up getting a brain bleed. This happened while we were waiting for his count to get up high enough for him to have another bone marrow transplant. After the brain bleed everyone but him knew there was no chance of him ever getting better. It's been almost four years and I still burst into tears when I think about us having to tell him he'd never get to go home. I'm so sorry you went through that too, it's gut wrenching."
"When I was 14 I had to call my mother and tell her my eldest brother committed suicide. My dad could not call her because they were divorced and she had blocked him."
- jttdiana
A truly devastating Christmas.
"Firefighter/EMT here. Had to tell a family on Christmas Eve one year that their baby was dead."
"I don't wish it on anyone. I also had the unfortunate privilege of being surrounded by fire, within inches of reaching a child making his last cries, and failing to reach him in time. That haunted me more than anything for years."
"PTSD and mental health issues in first responders are very real, and for every story you might hear from one of us, there are 10 we'd rather never speak of again."
"Ugh, that's always so hard."
"My dad was developing dementia."
"He kept thinking I was my mom, reminiscing about old times, funny stories. But he looked like he also knew it wasn't right."
"It's hard to accept and understand how someone knows you your whole life then the brain just flips. It's unbearable."
"My heart goes to you, it's absolutely awful."
Foster kid just wanting a mom.
"I had to tell a 4 year old that i couldn't be his mum."
"Context, growing up my parents fostered. Just before I moved out we looked after 2 kids under 5. I was reading him his bedtime story and out of nowhere he just said 'I don't have a mummy. Can you be my mum?' in this teary voice. Both siblings have a really happy home now but I went to bed teary eyed that night."
The unfortunate truth of terminal illness.
"My breast cancer has spread to my bones. It's stage 4. At this stage, the doctors focus on management rather than cure. The average time between diagnosis and death is about five years."
"I'm sorry. That's so, so hard. Telling my husband and daughter that I was terminal was heart breaking. I think it is so much harder for them than for me."
- slhopper
Reaching out for help can be difficult.
"Telling my parents I was a heroin addict. I was in an abusive relationship and hard into drugs and worried I would die. I needed help. My dad sat with me through the entire withdrawal and I'll be 10 years clean this November. I tell him all the time that he saved my life."
"Congrats on your sobriety. We are strangers but I want you to know that it doesn't matter and I'm extremely proud of you and happy for you! Your life matters my friend!"
And here's one, just in case you needed a chuckle.
"Worcestershire sauce."
- jevic97
"woerchestershurshirechetureshiresurechire sauce"
The truth hurts, and it can be devastating to be the one to tell it just as much as the one to hear it. Though it is hard, sometimes the truth can set us free.
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Celebrities hold a special place in our hearts. We see them on screen, we read their books, we listen to their music and podcasts, and we hold them in a high regard.
Our societies celebrates celebrities, as the name suggests, so as we see our hero's lives come to an end, it can feel like a huge loss.
Reddit user aliensockmonkey asked:
Which celebrity's death actually made you cry?
In this thread of emotional comments, people shared their fondness and influence of those no longer with us and celebrated the lives they lead.
This article does contain mentions of suicide and death.
Those who showed us to love science.
"Grant Imahara from Mythbusters and Gran Thompson, they made me get into science."
"I'm not going to go digging for it but I remember I didn't cry at his death, I cried over a tweet from Kari Byron that she posted not an hour later I believe. It wasn't long or thoughtful or beautifully written; it was something like "I was just talking to you this morning" with a picture of him and that was it. It felt like she was broken inside."
"One of the rare individuals out there to have both a keen intellect, a practical engineering and scientific curiosity AND the onscreen presence and charisma to bring knowledge to the masses."
"There were so many years in him to teach. Truly a tragedy."
A wonderful actor and person.
"Alan Rickman. That was just such an unexpected one, & I genuinely cried when I read it. He was such an amazing actor & human, it's still sad he's gone."
- poohfan
"Same. Such a phenomenal actor and a great guy. He kept his cancer diagnosis private so it was such a shock to all of his fans that he was even sick. I'm still trying to figure out how to make Siri sound like him."
It didn't matter what film, so many of us loved Alan Rickman.
"Same. I remember standing in my bedroom, scrolling on my phone and when I saw the news it felt like the wind completely went out of my sails. I sat on the edge of my bed and cried a bit. It feels a little silly to be sad about the loss of someone you've never met but I loved him in Harry Potter, Love Actually, and Dogma. And even though I hated the Hitchhiker's Guide adaptation that he was in, I loved him as Marvin."
A man with great spirit and love for wildlife.
"Steve Irwin. That man was so passionate about wild life and it's good to see his wife and in these past few years his children keeping up the fight."
"I've been thinking about this one a lot since Bindi had her little girl. Steve would have been the most amazing granddad.
I remember Terri talking about how Steve would get up early with the kids, and she'd wake up to the sounds of laughter coming from the living room every morning that he wasn't carting them around the zoo. I could imagine Bindi waking up to Steve just hanging in her house, doting on the grandkids, teaching them everything he knew. That family is missing a lot for having lost him."
The game show host that so many loved.
"Alex Trebek. My immigrant family used to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy religiously. He was always on TV when I was alive.
And hearing how he died really broke me. Just on his back porch swing with his wife as he went. It made me really think that one day, it will be your last day. And what you wear that day, everything you do, what coffee or breakfast you had or whatever, is going to be your last, and that's it. And just the way he went out was so beautiful."
The commenter later went on to edit his thoughts to say this:
"I want to clarify. I come from a family of immigrants who worked hard their entire lives and continue to, and they worked very hard to learn English. And game shows is what they would watch to help them learn. So these shows remind me of being with my family too."
Two people who shared their art and joy with us and left too soon.
"Robin Williams and Chester Bennington. Linkin Park got me through the darkest parts of my life and kept me alive. Chester's death rocked me, and so did knowing i would never get to see them live. I saw the tribute concert they did for him. I remember vividly during Numb I think, they called out to the audience "I want you guys to sing so loud Chester can hear you!" And I broke down."
"I could hear the audience start sobbing. Every lyric hit me before his death, and hearing Leave Out All the Rest or Numb makes me realize he was telling us his story the whole time."
"Robin was just a pure soul who made me and millions of others laugh, all while hiding such pain and an illness he couldn't control. Its a bit like how we say in Narcotics Anonymous, what happens when the person who kept you from relapsing relapses? It was such a cold and empty world after they left us, and I never even met them in person."
A mother and daughter that we lost so close to one another.
"Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds when they died within a few days of each other."
"I wasn't sure how close. Debbie told her son she wanted to be with Carrie and died hours later. Mother and daughter were very close. It must have been really hard on Carrie's daughter, Billie. She was very close to both of them."
"In her book she's very forthcoming about how she literally stayed alive for Billie. As much as she struggled with mental illness and addiction, her daughter was always her biggest priority, and she wanted to be healthy for her."
A chef that touched kitchens everywhere.
"Anthony Bourdain"
"I'm a chef and his impact on pretty much everyone in my industry is immeasurable. Kitchen Confidential is easily the most impactful book for most all of us. The most amazing way of translating and speaking about food/chef culture. His shows had an amazing way of highlighting other cultures and the way food brings people together no matter where you are from and showing that alot of our differences are purely cosmetic."
"That day was easily the quietest day I've ever spent in a professional kitchen in my life, everyone was just silent and upset."
- Napo2212
"Anthony Bourdain's death inspired me to go back to therapy. It hit me so hard because I loved his food travel shows."
"I loved how he had such a genuine love of food. High class food, low class food, spicy food, sweet food, whatever it was, if it was good food, he liked it."
- Ryan0413
This comment allowed a space for many to open up about their own feelings, so the original commenter added this:
"Thanks to everyone who shared their feelings about him. It's crazy to me to see how much influence he had in so many people's lives of all walks of life, even if they aren't a part of the culinary industry. It's a credit to who he was as a person."
"For alot of the comments here, I just want to say really quickly. If your suffering from depression or having suicidal thoughts, please, please, please, talk to someone. Friends, family, therapist, phones lines, anyone, everyone. You matter, no matter what you may think, and you matter to others around you. Please open up and talk to people."
- Napo2212
An actor that brought us so many laughs brought many tears when they heard the news
"Gene Wilder. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news; I was sitting down in a sandwich shop and it was broadcast on the store radio. I heard it but it didn't really register at first, but as soon as I got home it hit me and I had to lie down and cry for a few minutes."
"According to his family while taking his last breath he was listening to Over the Rainbow. Such a poetic way to depart, I don't know how to describe it. May he rest in peace."
- GSavvage
A man who defined our childhoods.
"Jim Henson for sure, maybe not a traditional celebrity, but the Muppets, Fraggle Rock...man, I'm still sad thinking about his death."
- gavreaux
"I was 14 when he died, lifelong muppets fan. My dad was reading the paper (the paper! How quaint) and told me Jim Henson died. I immediately said "no he didn't" my dad again confirmed that he died and I remember yelling "No! He didn't!" Then I sat down and cried. First time I ever cried over a celebrity death. Jim Henson defined my childhood and I still mourn his passing."
Though there are so many more we could name, these few were influential to so many people during their short times here. Whether we were influenced by their work, defined our childhoods, or helped us fall in love with their passion for life, their lives will hold a special place in our hearts.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/