One of my weekend rituals is to catch up on favourite radio programmes and podcasts of which Last Word, the BBC’s obituary show, is high up the list.
I’ve always found obituaries fascinating.
You don’t receive an obituary unless you’ve had quite the life but in the telling of each story we get the reminder and jolt that life is finite, so make the most of what we have and who we love.
The Last Word website also has a webpage announcing future episodes, all of which are currently blank. Death doesn’t tend to strike to order.
Last month we lost Tito and Toto, Jackson and Schillaci – big contributors to great pillars of my life in Music and Football. And last week we said goodbye to the marvellous Dame Maggie Smith, and country guru Kris Kristofferson.
All of which led me towards my selection for this week’s Topical Top 3 …
My Top 3 Famous Last Words (and some honorary mentions) – in no particular order;
Oscar Wilde
“My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go”
**these might not have been his last words but when legend becomes fact, print the legend”
Groucho Marx
“This is no way to live!”
Explorer, Captain Lawrence Oates
“I am just going outside and may be some time”
Honorary Mentions ….
Karl Marx who allegedly shouted to his housekeeper –
“Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”
The Comtesse de Vercellis deserves a mention as her last words appear to have been when passing wind and declaring that “A woman who can fart is not dead”