When we pay tribute to the deceased on All Souls’ day, we move down memory lane, remembering their lives through their words and deeds.In this way we better appreciate their legacy because no one leaves this world empty-handed. Everyone fulfils a mission, whether great or small.

Our dead ones’ last words sometimes speak volumes about their personality, what they cherished the most and the depths of their souls.

Serge Barbe, a loving family man and faithful husband who was to undergo surgery, asked the doctor to save his life so he could celebrate his coming gold- en wedding jubilee. That was his only wish at the threshold of death. This shows how precious his family was to him.

During half time in a football match between Cameroon and Colombia,the late football player Vivien Foe uttered his last words: “Guys, even if we have to die on the field, we have to win this half final!” Little did he know he was to crumble later in the match.

Oscar Wilde, a paragon writer, who made of sarcasm an art, took a glass of champagne on his deathbed and said that he should die beyond his means... those were his last words.

As a poet, Keats felt “flowers growing” over him under the embrace of death.

“Get my swan costume ready,” said the great Russian classical ballerina Anna Pavlova.

Nero, the despicably cruel emperor, who thought of himself as a talented artist while in fact he was petty and mediocre regretted that a “great artist” would die in him when he committed suicide.

Mahatma Gandhi only uttered the name of “Ram” when he fell under the gun-shot of Nathuram Ghose, showing the importance of God in his life. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have asked for all her “possessions for a moment in time” before she left this world.

Chopin asked to hear Mozart before drawing his last breath while Thomas Edison saw the ultimate place as being very beautiful. Edith Cavell’s last words were for the Germans who had condemned her to death- so as to walk in the steps of her master who asked his father to forgive them as they knew not what they did...

What will you say before you die? You’re writing the words everyday…

POEM

Death is like the archer, who one day or the other, arms his bow, picks you out of the row, and draws the arrow, which ends your tomorrow.

Death is the only lottery, where you win with certainty. One day or the other, death draws the number, some call destiny. In society, high or low are sure winners, with the great leveller who forgets no player.

His time you won’t know, so why be in sorrow, and worry for a tomorrow, you might never know, if you’re picked from the row?

Yesterday is sold, tomorrow is to unfold, today is your gold. Why live life shallow, when today’s the show? To withhold what life has endowed is to perish among the untold.

In the fields of your life miss not a day to drive the love plough. In your deep furrows do sow, the seeds of better tomorrows. Love and live today, make it your way. and make their day. Death is only a lottery, but you have eternity, by living fully and lovingly.

Alain JEANNOT