There’s nothing like believing you’re about to die to make you speak your mind. With no tomorrow to worry about, every secret suddenly feels safe to spill. But what if tomorrow does come, and you’re left standing there, alive, with no way to take those words back?

That’s what one Redditor asked when they wanted to hear deathbed confessions that didn’t actually end in death. From heartwarming to awkward to downright regrettable, here are some of the most memorable ones.

#1

Had a co-worker “Larry” who was in a job-site accident. Basically, he was underneath some scaffolding when it was backed into by a vehicle and collapsed on top of him. He was pinned down, couldn’t feel his legs, and was bleeding from a head wound. Larry was 100% convinced he was going to die. We were trying to pull the scaffold off and render first aid and all that, and he kept asking to use a phone to call his wife “Suzie”. Our supervisor gave him a phone, Larry called Suzie and confessed to having multiple affairs, stealing from Suzie’s parents, creeping on their neighbor’s teenage daughter and doing coke with Suzie’s sister. Larry was crying, telling her he was so sorry, begging for forgiveness.

Turns out Larry was just pinned down by a couple of tubes and bracers that fell together just right and was tight enough to pinch a nerve and slow circulation a bit. He got 6 stitches on his head and some bruises, and that was the extent of his physical injuries. However, he did lose his house, his pickup truck, custody of his kids and half his paycheck to child support and alimony. Plus he got written up for not wearing a hard hat under scaffolding.

edit: I talked to a guy that was working with Larry when it happened. They were taking down the scaffold and a fork truck picked up one of the cart/rack things the scaffolding was stored on. The rack wasn’t secured properly (Larry’s job) and when the weight shifted, the scaffolding fell off and caused the mess. Also, he said it wasn’t Suzie’s sister, it was her cousin.

Image credits: nukedsporks

#2

Was POSITIVE the house was going to come down during the in-land hurricane last year.

Texted my roommate (who was at work at the time) “so hey, I might die. Just wanted to say I love you. Too much to risk not saying it. If I don’t croak see you tonight, if I do sorry for the levity”

Well, f*cking house was 95% unscathed, and she came home with a huge smile and said she wanted to give it a try.

We aren’t together anymore but all in all could’ve gone a lot worse. 7/10, would try again.

Image credits: dscntfrntrwrhs

#3

I had an accident, and ended up with a concussion and emergency spinal surgery. Once I got to the hospital, the surgeon quickly went through all the things that could go wrong so I was aware. He said something like, “and with every surgery, there’s a very small chance of death” and all my brain heard was “you’re 100% gonna bleed out and die.”

I just had this very clear realisation through the confusion of the concussion that I didn’t tell my brother that I loved him enough. So I called him with like, 2% battery, and told him to move on and live his life to the fullest, and I’ll always be proud of him.

Yeah, surgery went absolutely fine and when I came round, he just joked, “even though you survived, I can still live my life to the fullest, right? It wasn’t an either/or situation?”

I obviously told him he couldn’t.

Image credits: CrazySnekGirl

#4

When I was 15, I had to have knee surgery because I tore my ACL playing softball.
After they doped me up really good my dumb a*s brain decided I might die on the table. As they were wheeling me down to surgery I sat up and apparently shouted at some random orderly to tell my family I wanted to be an organ donor. I have zero recollection of this but my mom, who was standing in that hall, still laughs about it to this day. I’m 37 now.

Image credits: macabrejaguar

#5

Attempted s*****e in 2019, sent messages thanking my friends for being good friends and apologizing for being pretentious in middle school. They don’t know what happened but it did improve our relationships.

Image credits: anon

#6

Not a really a confession, more of a retraction. My father was recently diagnosed with cancer. After the initial surgery to remove tumors, he was very weak, in a lot of pain, and scared because for the first time in his life he wasn’t in control of what was happening to him. Let me preface the rest of this by saying he’s always been very selfish and only really does anything that either benefits him somehow or is convenient for him, including being a parent. We were raised by a single mother for most of our childhood, and then got an awesome step-dad from our middle-teens to current day.

My father has always told my brother and I that we aren’t getting any inheritance- that he’s going to spend it all before he dies. He’s been a bachelor for 30 years, so no spouse either. We’ve always said (more to not give him any power over us) that that was fine- it is his money, he should spend it how he chooses.

So my dad is in the hospital, thinking he’s going to die any day, so he calls my bro and I and says he’s realized that he doesn’t need to be in a pine box before gifting us anything. He’s going give us each a chunk of money and watch us enjoy it before he dies. Now, this money did come with strings- we had to tell him what we were going to use or it for and he had to approve. So we both talked about doing some home improvement. This met with approval. He never said how much we were going to get, but the ideas he was throwing out there were pretty high dollar (a new pool for my bro, new floors and windows for me) so our eyes were kind of popping. It was very generous, and in my case, potentially game changing as I really do need both and am in no position to afford either.

Fast forward 2 weeks and all the tests come back. He has a very treatable form of cancer that was caught early and he has an excellent prognosis. Both my brother and I flew to where he lives to care for him after he got out of the hospital and start chemo. He sat us down and said something to the effect of “now that I’m not dying, there are still some things I want to do, so I’m not giving you any money.”

Totally his prerogative and his money, and totally in keeping with his personality. But still, oof.

Image credits: ozarkan18

#7

This might technically count. I was stationed in Hawaii when that ballistic missile threat came through. Before we knew it was fake I called my wife and my parents, my wife worked on North Shore which was a bit from where we lived on post, so she was at work too far away to reach before the supposed missile would hit, and my parents lived on the East Coast.

Called my wife first, made sure she understood what was happening, made sure to give her the rundown on what to do immediately, what to do after it hits, etc etc, and to give a quick call to family. She called her parents, I called mine. Told my parents to do their best to not to panic, told them I loved them no matter what happened, but told them I had to go because as much as I loved them, Rachel was all alone on the other side of the island and I needed to talk to her.

Called my wife again, tried to keep her as calm as possible, told her how much I loved her, told stories of good memories, all while I was sitting there drinking rum from the bottle knowing either I was about to die or about to go to war with someone, so it was probably going to be a while either way.

Turns out some a*****e hit the wrong f*****g button. Huge sighs of relief, nervous laughter, some frustration, but it definitely I think helped my wife and my family and I’s relationships saying things out loud that typically people don’t say.

Image credits: 11BApathetic

#8

Guy I know was in the ICU after being in a coma for almost two weeks. They had this guy on like 8 different IV things going into him, funny enough he would have lived if the hospital hadn’t given him staph in his blood, his family got paid over that one but thats a different story. He realizes his situation and that hes not going home. He gets a reverend to come in and he wants to confess something, he looks over to me and back to the clergy and asks for a minister by name and asks how he’s doing. Turns out that particular guy had some accusations made against him during his time in the ministry and had since fled. My friend starts laughing and says “behind the power station on the state line behind it in the swamp maybe 100 yards into the trees”. The clergy asked if he wanted absolution, he said this for you and your boss, flipped him off and asked him to leave.

Image credits: charlie_chapped_lips

#9

On his death bed, while I was out of the room, my friend told my then wife that I was having an affair with another woman. I wasn’t. She did not mention this until he was in the ground. He was always a jokester. So this was a very commited joke or it was the brain cancer talking. Or it was that crazy assed b***h just jerking my chain. I never will find out.

Image credits: herpestruth

#10

Not me, but my ex’s grandma’s best friend was given something like two weeks to live.

The friend had bitten her tongue for years about some friends and family, but once she got the notice she let LOOSE.

She’d also given away almost all of her possessions including her beloved prize winning cat.

10 days later she made a miraculous u-turn, and lived another 2 or something years. She spent it estranged from the people she went off on, but remained close with those who she loved. She always said she wished she’d been honest sooner.

I don’t know if she ever got the cat back though.

Image credits: BeingMrSmite

#11

I attempted s*****e two December’s ago. I called my (then) boyfriend of almost two years and told him I finally believed he wasn’t cheating and that I was so sorry for being so insecure and delusional. I apologized for being so suspicious of he and his only friend, and it was all just me being a terrible girlfriend. I survived the attempt, went to school the next day for midterms, got ghosted by him for two days, broken up with, and then learned he was actually cheating and just making me think it was my fault. I regret ever apologizing to him.

Image credits: anon

#12

Had botulism from food poisoning and as my mom was driving me to the hospital and the symptoms started kicking in big. I was fully convinced I am not going to make it. I was around 13 at the time. Wasn’t really a confession, I just felt really bad that I’m going to die and I knew just how sad that would make my mom. I kept apologizing and saying it’s my fault that she will now have to be sad about my death. The pickled fish didn’t taste right, why did I eat it anyway. The worst thing was that she was the one who gave it to me and kept pushing me to just eat it. But she doesn’t eat fish so she couldn’t have known it was long gone.

I can’t even imagine what it would do to her if I actually died that day. The guilt would probably k**l her. Or my dad would. Not to mention botulism has a fairly high mortality rate, at 7.5%.

Image credits: YoMomIsANiceLady

#13

When I was like 12 years old my stomach hurt everyday for months and I thought I was going to die so I told my best friend my wizard101 username and password. I don’t think he ever logged on it though.

Image credits: anon

#14

My mom did the opposite of a deathbed confession.

In her last fifteen-twenty years, things went downhill emotionally and mentally for my mom and she’d built a fictional version of her own history that she shared with neighbors, church friends and co-workers. She wanted to control the image they all had of her. Things had been tense between us for years, but when she got sick, I helped her. I spent an entire week living at the hospice facility in her room with her because I didn’t want her to be alone, and she had literally timed her calls to her sister (Who hadn’t spoken to us in decades) and her attorney, hoping to avoid any big revelations until after she died so she could ‘Win’.

I didn’t find out about all of it before she died, but I caught her egging her sister on to harass me via text message when she could barely speak. I confronted her and cleared things up with her sister.

Her co-workers came in and fawned over her and told me what a saint she was, and how wonderful and patient she was with the younger nurses. Her boss came in and introduced herself(The day after I’d busted Mom for lying about ten different things) and she introduced herself and I told her I’d heard a lot about her. She got this look on her face and I realized that my mom had professed to hating her so much because she wasn’t fooled.

Image credits: Sea_Tracker

#15

Not me but I do remember the words that my grandfather (father side) said to my father, while he was in a hospital bed, he said to him: “I’m sorry for being a terrible father to you my son, I kept on pushing my agenda to you and your son, so much that both of you resented me, I’m sorry for being overly strict to both of you, This condition that I am in, let this be karma for me and a lesson to the both of you, I love you,” only then a few weeks go by his health was back to normal, and his TB was cured we were really happy, and I asked him if the words he said a few weeks back was true, and he said it was, and he is now living on a home far from the urban life and enjoyed the rest of his days peacefully.

For Context: My Parents were teen parents they were young and in love but now things have changed and my father died from overworking and my mom remarried to an awful, egotistic, person, but to this day I still think about that moment and it makes me happy that he learnt his lesson.

Image credits: UmbralCrits

#16

I witnessed one. My husband’s uncle had gotten into a car crash ahead of us and while waiting for the ambulance he thought he was going to die because he couldn’t feel anything besides his head and there was a lot of blood in the car. He told us to tell his wife that he loved her and was sorry for not always treating her how she deserved to be treated because she was the love of his life and although he originally married her because he had a f****h, he had realized over the years that she was so much more and that he didn’t deserve her and wanted her to never sell herself short when finding love in the future. Ambulance came a bit later and besides some surface injuries he had ended up badly fracturing the two of the wings on either side of 3 vertebrae and needed a couple of surgeries to replace the vertebrae; he couldn’t feel anything due to damage and muscle swelling but could still move a bit. We told his wife more or less what he had said, but it was really awkward hearing someone you looked up to say that they married their wife because she fulfilled a massive f****h. EDIT: Sorry I didn’t think to put in the f****h. He is into SSBBW and has an emphasis on “tummy/rolls play”.

Image credits: 2baverage

#17

I met my wife’s boyfriend and it was my bestfriend

Thanks for the love guys it made me cry tho.

Image credits: Slymwon1

#18

When I was in Iraq, I was part of a small team of people who worked on a base. I spent a lot of time alone when my shift was over. In hindsight, being alone in a war zone makes everything worse. I also had a huge 20+ man tent to myself, since I was kind of ot part of one unit and not really part of another.

So very frequently we would get rocket and morter attacks on this base (Balad 2004-2005). They would set up roof gutters in the dirt and drop explosives down with a timer, then leave the area. Hours later, the mortars would go off, usually in threes. They were surprisingly ineffective, but one unfortunate airman lost his hand and legs to an attack, so not completely useless.

One night I was reading/playing videogames/whatever in my tent when I hear the loudest mortar hit I had ever heard. I remember that I felt the sound more than I heard it. Then there was a second one that was even closer, so close that I heard dirt spray onto my tent. This one did not shock me the same as the first, but it was definitely closer.

This is the instant where my brain goes into overdrive. I am alone in a dark tent. I have just heard two attacks and they were incredibly close. I know the third one was coming. So what do I do in the instant before the third one hits? I make my peace with God. I remember thinking “if you are there, now is a good time to show up” and also bargaining “if you save me, I’ll become a priest”.

Well, in what seemed like an eternity, I waited. The third one never hit. I never became a priest, but that moment was absolutely life changing. I actually think I have serious PTSD from it, but not in a way that I would expect. I kind of don’t care about things as much. Little things bother me, and I am human, so my wife and kids might say I have a temper or etc., but the big stuff just rolls off me. I feel kind of like (this will not go over well on Reddit) I know God exists and I am at peace with the metaphysical side of life.

Now, this is hard to put into a short post, but I still think about that night from time to time.

Image credits: DaleLeatherwood

#19

My ex mother in law had some heart issues due to side effects of prescription d***s. She was convinced she was dying. So she got on the phone to ALL her friends in this small town and told them she was dying.

Once her doctor sorted out her prescriptions she was fine. She probably stuck around another 10 years. That must’ve been some awkward conversations in church.

Image credits: ShelteringInStPaul

#20

Not a confession but it’s a running joke in our family now. “Give anon my snowmobile” as he thought he was dying. Turns out he just had to get his appendix out.

Image credits: anon_2326411

#21

Was backpacking with my brother and dad. Dad was having a rough go of it, so my (much fitter) brother would hike a few miles with me, drop his pack, run back for our dad, grab dad’s pack, and both would hike to me (who had hopefully made some progress with both our packs).

It was supposed to last a week, but my dad was struggling the first day. I pushed to at least spend a night in the trail (it was my dad’s dream to hike this trail, he had been preparing and reading books about it for a year).

So, I was by myself and nearing the overnight shelter when the bushes started shaking. I was convinced I had come across a bear. I carefully headed back to where my brother’s pack was and wrote a note to my wife and kids, telling them I loved them and to “not be as stubborn as me”.

I pulled my driver’s license out of my pack and put it in my pants pocket, in case I got mauled, and started hiking to my dad and brother for help (safety in numbers), since I didn’t have a cell signal.

Before I made it to them, I crossed another hiker headed to the shelter. I had calmed down a bit by then and I figured if there was a bear, he would see it first, so I again started to the shelter.

Good thing, since I was able to get the tent setup, etc. My dad and brother rolled in at dusk. My brother says it was probably a deer that I came across, but there were signs all over the shelter about an aggressive bear in the area.

Bear or deer, I have never felt such cold terror and a certainty that my life was in danger. I’ve read a lot since that my life was likey not in danger because black bears rarely attack, but my heart still pounds thinking about it.

The next day was mostly downhill trail, so we all hiked out together. Such a disaster of a trip, but none was hurt and we have some great stories.

Image credits: R3dChief

#22

Saturday afternoon, I was setting up to end myself. Ran as hard and as fast as I could to a park up the road, sent a few subtle goodbyes, and posted the only thing I wanted to get out there one more time to social media. “Love y’all. Be good to each other.”

I was having a hard time finding a quiet, secluded place since it was a beautiful day out. Wound up not going through with it because some of my friends could read between the lines and talked me down. So that ‘confession’ saved my life.

I know, not what y’all were thinking about for deathbed confessions. But I am a simple guy and just want people to have good, happy lives.

Image credits: corkscrewfork

#23

Not a confession, but more of about people being shameless after an accident:

My friend was sleepy after school years ago. So much so that he fell asleep driving his car and ran into a tree. His car was totaled but he was pretty much ok. However, the police officer who came to the scene said “You know, it’s a good thing no one else was in the car. They would have gotten really hurt.”

Of course, my friend replied “Yeah… but they probably would have said ‘Hey! Wake Up!’”

A few minutes later, the EMTs who showed up said “You know, it’s good that you were asleep, because your body went limp. You could have fractured some bones from trying to brace yourself.”

“True, true,” he tells them. “But if I were awake, I would have straightened my arms enough to turn the wheel to stay on the road.”.

Image credits: cravecase

#24

Was planning on leaving and apologized to everyone I felt I’ve done wrong. Didn’t go through with my plan and ended up having a better relationship with (most of) those people.

Image credits: Lawdfozze

#25

My dad was absent for 14 years, I was stabbed thrice when I was 17 and I texted him to tell him that I regret not trying to make it work. I’m on antibiotics forever now but I also have a strong relationship with my dad.

Image credits: Cute-Repeat-2424

#26

I was in a car accident where I broke my neck and was bleeding very heavily due to a piece of metal going into my thigh. I called my gf at the time and told her I’d been saving money for a few months and that I wanted her to have it and not tell my family about it. It was only 5k, and I had been saving it to buy her a new car (i was gonna save 10k for the downpayment so her monthly payments would be under $200). I seriously thought I was going to die because of how much blood I lost. I passed out while still on the phone with her and woke up in the hospital with her next to me. She asked me what the money was for and I told her and she started laughing…. She had secretly been saving too. And had saved 7k. 2 weeks later when it I could walk again, we went and got her car (putting down 10k) and took the remaining 2k and went to stay at my mom’s house in florida for a couple weeks while I healed up some more. Probably not the type of confession you were looking for, but there it is.

Image credits: Diligent_Slide

#27

Was to board a flight from LA to my home country. Earlier in the day, was misdiagnosed with an incorrect EKG due to some nurse’s fault. (It would seem I was completely normal.)

Due to me being the overly anxious self I am, I was absolutely convinced that the flight would be landing with one passenger less. Called my mom from the security check. Just said that I’m happy and I love her.

No repercussions later.

Image credits: colincreevey0

#28

Old bosses’ brother dismantles bombs and land mines and stuff. Not sure much more than that. They were in some kind of safe room handling a nerve agent type bomb and someone on the team dropped the thing. They locked down the room these 3 people were in and were told to call their families to say goodbye. He called my old boss, his brother, who kept ignoring his call. He ended up volunteering to pick up the bomb and finish taking it apart using the rationale that if he died he’d rather do it in the initial blast than the skin melting after effects. He was successful and now can speak to his brother on the phone and d**n time he pleases.

Image credits: anon

#29

Not me but an acquaintance, his wife got covid and she was really sick. Almost all the doctors told him that she wouldn’t make it, so she confessed that she had been cheating on him for about 10 years with one close friend of him and that maybe their last child isn’t his but his friend’s. The lady survived and that poor stupid sucker kept his marriage as if nothing had happened ._.

Image credits: Hall_Wilkerson

#30

Me, my best friend, and his crush were riding our bikes in the nearby field/forest. My best friend tripped out a rock and went flying into a tree head first, me and his crush at the time saw the accident and ran over to help. Luckily I had my cell phone and me and I called 911. When I was calling, my friend told his crush that he likes her, his crush didn’t… a helicopter came and airlifted him to a nearby hospital. He was ok. Oh and him and his crush were neighbors so it was awkward for like a year and a half, so that was funny.

Edit: sorry if this seems vague, it happens like 7-8 years ago.

Image credits: anon

#31

(Sorry for my grammar i am german and grammar isnt my strength) I once had a asthma/allergic Reaction and nearly died and the only things i can remember is: me waking up and cant breath,my mom crying for help on the phone,me in the ambulance with my crying mom on one side and a paramedic on the other side who had to find a hospital for me and to this day the cause of the reaction is still unknown my mom thinks i had a allergic reaction to some glazed peanuts i ate at that day but the paramedics said it would be too late for a reaction, the doctors think i had a asthma reaction but we found out that behind my bed was some black mould and i think it was a reaction on the mould.

#32

Not me, but my biological dad.

A bit of backstory,
My parents split when I was 2, I went with my mum, she remarried, and moved to Australia. I didn’t meet my biological dad until I was 16.

Anyway, when I was in my mid 20s a few years ago, I learned that he has cancer, and was given 3 months left, according to my mum.

He fought it tooth and nail, but ended up on his deathbed.

He told his 3 daughters about me, that he kept me a secret, and how to get into contact with me.

Miraculously, he got better. It’s been six years, and not one of my “sisters” have contacted me.

To be fair, even though he might be my biological dad, he is a stranger.

My stepdad is who raised me, and therefore my dad.

So not meeting my sister’s isn’t a big issue.

#33

It wasn’t a confession really, but one time my dad had a panic attack and thought it was a heart attack and he insisted on showing us where the living will and all of his password notebooks were before he’d let us drive him to the hospital.

#34

Had a massive brake down in 2019 after my remaining family and my dog died with in months of each other. Because of my brake down I stopped caring for myself and I get dehydrated, chest infection, throat infection and my immune system genuinely f****d itself sideways.

My boyfriend saved me got me eating and drinking again and I had to have a drip to rehydrate me and a bucket load of antibiotics.

During this whole time I couldn’t breath right I felt I was suffocating and cried every day thinking it was the end, I realised nobody knew how I felt about them so I told all my friends , my boyfriend , pets even went and spoke to my uncles grave and I patched a bunch of broken bridges with people I feel out with over the years.

Obviously I got better and didn’t die but now everbody knows what they mean to me and I saved some friendships I thought were long lost and I’m closer to my pets now so in a messed up way it took thinking I was gonna die to fix my s**t and heal broken bridges with others.

#35

Head injury when I was 17. While we were waiting for the ambulance, I was losing a lot of blood and starting to black out. Before I did I admitted to my parents that I’ve hated them for the past 6 years before that and wished bad things on them. 5 years later, we’ve agreed to play nice until I graduate college. They don’t treat me differently, I don’t tell the rest of their relatives how I feel and why I feel that way.

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