Parting-Words Regret

What I'll say -- "I was staring at some cat vomit when I got the news?"

"Why didn't I say goodbye to him?" she heard him say in a strangled voice. "Why didn't you make me say goodbye to him?" She had never heard so much hurt in him. Not even when word had come that their father had died by the river.

— Baerd to Dianora about Naddo, Tigana

A character has died. Or has left. Either way, they've been separated. One of their loved ones recalls the last conversation they had with the person and wishes they had chosen their words more carefully. Maybe they said something hurtful, perhaps even wishing them harm and never got a chance to take it back. Maybe the conversation was about something mundane and trivial, and they wasted the opportunity to express their true feelings to the person. Whatever the case, they look back on the incident with regret.

Sometimes inverted where a dying person feels the regret. Related to Never Got to Say Goodbye and I Wished You Were Dead, and occasionally overlaps with Distracted from Death.

As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The last thing Jintan ever said to Menma in Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day is that he didn't love her because she was "ugly". He then ran home, hoping that he could apologise tomorrow, but Menma drowned not long afterwards.
• Arte: Katarina was a noble girl who was sent to the country to be raised by a wet nurse, Buona, and her son, Gimo. Katarina saw them as family, but when she got older, she had to be sent back to her real parents. Katarina doesn't like the idea of being sent to people she doesn't know, and tells Buona she's the only real mother she knows. But Buona reminds her she's just a servant, and nothing more. Angry at what this means, Katarina tells her she hates her...but not long after, Buona got sick and died, and Katarina continues to be wracked with guilt over it.
• In Attack on Titan, shortly before Wall Maria is breached and the Titans enter his hometown, Eren has an argument with his mother Carla about wanting to join the Survey Corps. Minutes later, he is forced not just to flee, but to leave the seriously injured Carla behind to be devoured by a Titan lest they would all perish. He bitterly regrets spending his final moments with Carla having a foolish argument, while furiously vowing to eradicate the Titans. Later, it is revealed Keith Shadis had been in love with Carla, and just like Eren, he deeply regrets that he lost his temper and insulted her the last time he spoke to her before her death.
• In Bleach, Orihime regretted not giving her brother Sora her usual fond farewell when he left for work on the day he died because they had an argument earlier. When Sora came back as a Hollow and was defeated/purified by Ichigo and Rukia, Orihime took the chance to say farewell to his departing spirit.
  Orihime: Brother... Have a nice day!
• In CLANNAD, Kotomi's last words to her parents before they died in a plane crash were how she hated them for missing her birthday.
• In Digimon Adventure 02, a very young Ken Ichijouji yelled at his older brother Osamu that he wished he'd disappear. The same day, Osamu was hit by a car...
• Drifting Classroom: The last conversation Sho and his mother ever had before the former's disappearance was a screaming argument, with him telling her that he'd never be coming home, and her telling him that she hoped he'd never come home.
• Elfen Lied: Kohta's last words to his little sister Kanae were a threat that he'd "hate her forever" unless she apologized to his friend Lucy, who Kanae had just accused of murdering people at the festival they were at. He then sees her bifurcated in front of him... by Lucy herself. He shows clear regret in present times for fighting with her just before she died... although the trauma of witnessing such a thing resulted in repressed memories, so he's convinced himself for much of the series that his little sister actually died of a long illness, and feels regret for not being nicer to her in general.
• In Fruits Basket, Tohru regrets not saying "take care" before her mother left on the day she died. She had pulled an all-nighter for a test and simply couldn't wake up when Kyouko went to work... There's the implication that she feels responsible for her death. She said it every day, except for the day her mom died...
• In The Legend of Snow White, the youngest dwarf Jolly, who has an unrequited crush on Snow White, goes through this at Snow White's first Disney Death. He had been sulking and snapping at her all day because he was jealous of her love for Prince Richard and worse, it was his going off into the forest in anger, and his fellow dwarf Vet going to look for him, that left Snow White alone and led to her taking the wicked queen's poisoned ribbon.
• My Roommate is a Cat; Subaru's parents would often invite him on vacations and trips, which he would reject as frivolous. After they're killed in a bus accident, Subaru finds some of his mother's notes, highlighting a number of locales that Subaru might enjoy visiting (such as the childhood home of one of his favorite authors or a few old houses he could use for set pieces for his novels). This causes Subaru to realize how much his parents loved him and how poorly he treated them, causing him to break down and cry.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • In "Seeing the Forest for the Trees!", after Ash yells at her when she attempted to help him, Serena lets his words get to her as she gets frustrated and emotionally hurt with him. Serena then angrily told Ash that he wasn't the friend she knows and to give the real him back. However, while looking for Ash during a blizzard and not being able to find him, Serena became filled with regret as she felt the last few words she said to him got him to run away more depressed. Although, Ash, who felt remorse for hurting her, somewhat assured Serena that she truly did help him and didn't make things worse at all.
  • In "Memories in the Mist!", Mallow has heavy regrets that the last exchange she had with her ill mother before she died when she was younger was yelling that she hated her for apologizing for not being there for her. When given a chance to meet up with her spirit, all those bottled feelings spill out as her mom gently forgives her and encourages them both to turn the regret into gratitude for being there when she was alive.
• In Subaru, it gets Played With. Subaru gets into a fight with her mother and yells that she wishes her sick brother wasn't there anymore, whose condition turns critical shortly after. She is filled with guilt and realizes she can't simply apologize because Kazuma cannot understand words anymore, which was why she was dancing events to him as a form of communication. Then Mana teaches her how to dance sorrow and asking for forgiveness, but Kazuma ends up dead before Subaru can show him.
• Implied in Tokyo Ghoul: in their last conversation, Touka got into a fistfight with Kaneki and concluded by calling him "trash" and telling him not to come back to Anteiku. Soon afterwards, Anteiku is raided by CCG and Kaneki is defeated by Arima, with his ultimate fate ambiguous.
• A variation occurs in Yakitate!! Japan, where Pierrot spends a few moments ranting about his parents, who had abandoned him as a baby while drinking with the King of Monaco, not realizing that the King is his father. When he finally realized that he was essentially insulting his father in his face, the latter passed away before he could apologize. Made even worse when Pierrot found out that Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You and that his father died a Heroic Sacrifice to save his life.
• In Your Lie in April, Kousei's last words to his abusive and ill mother were that he wanted her dead. His guilt over it is an important part of the trauma that keeps him from playing the piano.
• YuYu Hakusho: Yusuke's Only Friend Keiko is especially distraught about his death because earlier that day she told him to "just die already" after getting fed up with his teasing and irreverent attitude.

Comic Books

• Atomic Robo: During World War II, Robo accepted a mission from the US military in return for citizenship (and thus status as a person). His creator/father, Nikola Tesla, as a devout pacifist, was furious, and he and Robo had a vicious argument about it. Tesla died before Robo got back from his Nazi-punching adventures, and Robo still regrets it nearly 80 years later.
  Robo: I'd never seen him so angry. And then I never saw him again.
• Batman: One story had a flashback that showed 8-year-old Bruce getting angry at his parents for some reason and saying that he hated them. In an effort to cheer up Bruce, his parents took him to watch Zorro the very next night. Bruce was about to apologize to them on the way home right when they entered Crime Alley...
• Deathstroke: In Pre-2011 continuity, the last words of Slade Wilson's oldest friend and Battle Butler Wintergreen when Slade who was possessed by a maddened Jericho at the time though Wintergreen didn't know that murdered him were "well, I suppose it was only a matter of time." After being freed of Jericho, Slade is haunted by those words, realizing that his closest friend genuinely expected Slade to murder him someday.
• The Incredible Hulk: Gideon Wilson of the Gamma Corps in World War Hulk. His son, Jim, told him he was leaving school, they had an argument, it came to blows, Jim told him he was going to New Mexico and they'd never see each other again... and days later Gideon saw a news broadcast warning that the Hulk was rampaging through New Mexico.
• The Punisher: The Punisher MAX series (which puts a lot more emphasis on the Punisher's broken mental state than most incarnations) reveals that Frank Castle's last words to his wife were "I'm leaving...". The guilt of those parting words is partially why Castle launched his crusade, rather than just pure revenge; he wants to punish himself most of all.
• Runaways: Inverted with Gertrude Yorkes' death. Chase Stein was about to be sacrificed to the Gibborim by Geoffrey Wilder when Gert showed up and bluntly informed Wilder that Chase was a selfish, cheating bastard whose death was unlikely to earn Wilder any points with the Gibborim. So Wilder killed Gert instead, and Chase was left wondering if Gert truly meant what she'd said.
• Shadowland: Victor Alvarez, the second Power Man after Luke Cage gave up the name, has this in his origin story. Victor's parents were getting ready to divorce, and Victor was upset that his dad wasn't trying harder to make the marriage work. Victor accused his father of not being strong enough to fight for his own family. When Victor saw how much his words hurt his dad, he immediately tried to apologize... and that's when the bombs Bullseye set in Hell's Kitchen exploded. Victor survived by somehow absorbing chi from the other victims, including one of Iron Fist's students but he could never forget his dad's wounded expression.
• Spider-Man: In The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski), during the course of Peter and May's talk after May discovers that he is Spider-Man, May tells him that the night his Uncle Ben was killed, she and he had been fighting - not over anything major, just one of any number of small, inconsequential disagreements that happen over the course of a long marriage, and nothing they weren't going to easily make up over. But Ben had stepped outside to clear his head... and the reconciliation would never happen. Peter, she explains, isn't the only one who's been carrying guilt since that fateful night.
• Superman:
  • Invoked in The Coming of Atlas. While she is watching Superman being savagely beaten down by Atlas, Lois Lane fears that her husband will die, and that her last conversation with him will be a stupid argument over breakfast.
  • In The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor, when she believes Supergirl has been killed off, Lena feels regret for their previous argument where she berated Kara and declared she could never forgive her for keeping secrets from her.

Fan Works

• In Ambience: A Fleet Symphony, after learning that her physical appearance was done as a Replacement Goldfish for The Lost Lenore, Hatsuyuki called her head developer creepy and pathetic. This was the last time they ever saw each other, and in the present day, she wishes they could have parted more amiably.
• In The Assassination of Twilight Sparkle, Twilight had recommended that Spitfire not allow Rainbow Dash into the Wonderbolts for at least 7 months due to her Hair-Trigger Temper, in order to allow Rainbow time to learn how to control herself. Needless to say, Rainbow is not happy about this and, in an argument between them, tells Twilight that she hates her. Unfortunately, before Rainbow could apologize to Twilight, she was assassinated. Rainbow becomes an alcoholic out of regret that she said those final words to her and can't take it back.
• Blood and Spirit: As revealed in a flashback, the last thing Terminus ever said to Hylia before she cast off her divinity was a condemnation of her decision to become a mortal for the sake of being reborn alongside her chosen hero as foolish. She only comes to truly understand why Hylia did so after losing her own hero, whom she had fallen in love with, to Majora, and regrets her final words to her sister to this day.
• The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as a fanmade novelized adaptation of the original game, features every memory seen in canon, with a few expansions. One of these includes the "Father and Daughter" memory, which features a much more adversarial confrontation between Zelda and King Rhoam where she calls her father out on not really being a father to her since her mother died. In the re-creation of the "Return of Calamity Ganon" memory, Zelda expresses to Link that she really regrets saying that to her father, and admits that she exaggerated the negative, and wishes to make amends with him when she returns to the castle. Needless to say, given the memory in question, Calamity Ganon awakens before that happens, killing him and preventing that. She and her father make amends at the very end when King Rhoam's spirit visits her and he apologizes to her for being a distant father.
• Code Prime: Near the end of R2, after finding out about her role in creating Ragnarok and abandoning them to die in Japan, Nunnally's last words to Marianne li Britannia after she helps save her from Megatron is that she should no longer be considered her daughter and that she'll never forgive her. Of course, then Marianne gave her life to allow Lelouch to return from the dead resulting in some highly conflicted feelings from Nunnally afterwards. Though somewhat downplayed in that Marianne was sure to tell Lelouch that she wants Nunnally to know that her last words to her are that she loves them both.
• In Power Girl story A Force of Four, Kara is feeling guilty because she was always snapping at her cousin and never, ever told him she loved him before his death.
  She wondered if Kal ever forgave her for never telling him she had loved him, despite it all, like a second father. She wondered if she would ever forgive herself for not doing that.
• In the Gensokyo 20XX Series, we have this a couple of times. In 20XXI, we have it where Eirin commits suicide and the other characters wishing they didn't treat her as badly, with Ran explicitly wishing she didn't say what she said to her. Later in 20XXV, we have it where Yume Ni dies of illness, in the aftermath Chen's "Reason You Suck" Speech, leaving the latter very upset and wishing she could have taken it back and never let that be the last thing she's said to her.
  Chen: The last thing I said to her wasn't "I love you" or anything to the effect, the last thing I had said to her was so scathing that it had broken her will and I wish I could take it back.
• In Guardian, Lulu snaps at Yuna just before departing on her second pilgrimage—as her sole intention was to save Yuna from going on one herself, and Yuna was too eager to listen to Lulu's patient explanations for why she couldn't join her. Lulu is instantly aware of this and says on the next page that her last goodbye to her sister-figure may have been to yell at her.
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: During an argument about who was responsible for their friendship deteriorating, Goh snaps at Chloe that she's got no right to criticize him for chasing after his dreams, given how she doesn't have any of her own. Chloe declares that she never wants to see him again before running away. Goh immediately realizes he screwed up, but it's too late: she swiftly gets picked up by the Infinity Train, and has no intention of returning to Vermillion City, ignoring all of Goh's efforts to contact her.
• It's Over, Isn't It (it's only just begun): On the day that Toshinori left to fight what proved to be his Final Battle, he and Inko exchanged Love Confessions. Thus, she counts herself lucky that she's not suffering from this. Sir Nighteye, on the other hand, is guilt-stricken over how he interrupted Toshinori's attempt to pass on some last words by ordering him to "Tell them yourself!" Since he wasn't able to, Nighteye fears that he robbed them of whatever Toshinori meant to say.
• From Kill la Kill AU, A Broken Heart, an Untold Story, and a Sister's Regret, Nui and Satsuki have a fight while Ryuuko (who's narrating) was asleep and it ends with a guilt-ridden Satsuki running away. From what is made clear later, it had something to do with the fact Ragyou almost died giving birth to Satsuki, something which she regrets later, especially when she actually learns the truth about what happened at the time her sister was born and when she has this pointed out to her, leading to her to go to Sagamihara to look for her, which lands her in the hospital for injuries. However, this is subverted in that Satsuki doesn't die, actually, she is just fine, as she had just run away.
  Ryuuko: (to Nui) You had better watch what you say to people 'cause it could be the last thing they've heard! If we don't find Sats and or get a call from the morgue, then she will have died remembering what you've said to her!
• Kingdom Hearts: The Antipode: Aqua deeply regrets her words to Terra prior to the climax of Birth By Sleep, especially when she learns what has become of him.
  You'll go astray again...
• The Inspector Gadget fic A Man's Worth has a well-done two-fold example. The last words Gadget actively said to Penny before her kidnapping are "Well perhaps I don't want help, especially from you!" (meant in a Papa Wolf fashion but clearly taken as insulting by Penny); however, he doesn't realize that the last words she heard him say about her were "No, she's not! I don't want her anywhere near me!" (The readers know Gadget is referring to Penny's safety but due to when she came in, Penny assumes her uncle is so furious he wants nothing to do with her anymore.)
  • On the flip side, while it doesn't change Gadget's understandable panic over Penny's disappearance, he does have a small amount of reassurance to cling to in that her last words to him were a promise to return, meaning that he can be certain she didn't run away; similarly, Penny can trust that even if there's only the slimmest hope, her uncle WILL find her and is almost certainly already looking for her.
• In The Merry Go Round Broke Down, Buzz was mysteriously deleted while filming Toy Story 3. Woody regrets being angry at Buzz, saying he "was too buzz-brained to read his golldarn script", and not being able to apologize for the incident.
• Missing (Sherlock Holmes): Watson went out on the night of his disappearance thanks to having a fight with Holmes, and both deeply regret the last words they said before Watson's abduction.
• Our Hero follows the Fandom-Specific Plot of the rest of Class 1-A learning about how Bakugou bullied Midoriya throughout their childhoods. Everyone shuns him as a result, with Kirishima being the only one to reach out and get his side of things. Ashido is especially furious with him, before a sudden disaster strikes during an outing and the two of them go missing, leaving everyone facing the very real possibility of Bakugou and/or Ashido dying before they can be found in the wreckage.
  • Mitsuki faces the same fear, as the last time she spoke to her son was a vicious argument over the phone where she told him to throw himself into traffic. When she finds out about the situation, she's completely blindsided.
• As we already know The Outside, Ragyo and Soichiro had a fight and the former left, however, as we find out, the fight was about Soichiro encouraging Satsuki to go outside and she has a near-fatal asthma attack. Years later, Ragyo expresses that she blamed him for it and wishes they could have made amends.
• Pony Gear Solid starts with a real nasty fight between Applejack and Apple Bloom, with the latter telling the former she wished she was dead before sneaking out in the middle of the night and running away from home. Sometime later, Apple Bloom is abducted by Trenton, and Applejack tries to save her alongside her friends. Suffice to say, they end up on the wrong end of a Curb-Stomp Battle and Applejack takes a bad enough hit that Apple Bloom thinks Trenton killed her. Thankfully, she was only stunned temporarily, and the sisters reconcile later on, but for a while poor Apple Bloom thought that the last thing she told Applejack was that she wished she was dead... and that her wish came true.
• In Pulling the Plug, the last thing Kyouko Yuuki said to her daughter Asuna before the latter logged onto SAO was to coldly remind her to be on time for dinner. When she doesn't show up to the meal, Kyouko goes up and pulls the plug on her NerveGear, accidentally murdering her own daughter. Kyouko is left wishing that she'd warned Asuna about the dangers of SAO, told her she was proud of her, or simply said that she loved her.
• Red Butterfly expands on the Fruits Basket example above with Akane, Tohru's older sister. The last time Akane saw Kyoko alive, they had an argument, which ended with Akane screaming she hated her mother and wished she was dead, to the point of not saying a word to her the morning she died. Akane bitterly regrets it, to the point of not even getting close to Kyoko's grave out of disgust with herself.
• In the backstory of Return to Konoha, a 9-year-old Naruto and his twin sister Kairi got into an argument about how Minato banned Naruto from becoming a ninja for his own safety. After Naruto calls Kairi a whore (he didn't know what it meant, only that it was the worst thing you can call a girl), Kairi decides to reveal to her brother that the reason everybody hates him is that he is the container of the Kyuubi; and while she does feel vindicated for a moment, she soon regrets it because a) she promised her father she would keep it a secret, and b) she just revealed it in front of several other children. While being punished, Kairi resolves to apologize to her brother as soon as possible, but she doesn't get the chance to when Naruto runs away the next day.
• In the Katawa Shoujo fic Second Beats, Hanako is implied to have faced this fear when Hisao suffers a heart attack immediately after the events of her bad ending, in which she tells him she hates him for pitying her.
  • She is not so fortunate, however, in Reconciliation, in which eight years after the same bad ending, (she is unable to face him due to her guilt), he dies of a heart attack.
• In Security! (Worm), Victoria has just blown up at Amy and hurt Mike at Taylor's birthday party because she heard that Mike advised Amy to take some time away from Victoria and her aura and get readopted by the Heberts, and flies away in fury. The next moment, Zion blasts apart the Heberts' house, and Victoria is stricken with guilt (though the occupants managed to escape just in time).
• A Song of Ice, Fire and Heart has Ventus and Robert's friendship shattering when Robert smiles in front of Elia Martell's butchered corpse, forgetting how much the Keyblade-wielder cared for her and her young daughter — Ventus immediately punched Robert and stormed out before vanishing from Westeros entirely, leaving Robert consumed with remorse for never getting to apologize and make amends.
• Soul Chess: "Look if you want to go and get yourself killed that's fine by me. Don't expect me to be at your funeral." said by Shinji Hirako to Hiyori.
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfic The Storms of War, Steve refuses to let Sharon, who was recently injured during a mission and hasn't fully recovered yet, accompany him, Sam, and Wanda to Wakanda when they receive a distress signal, stating that it's too dangerous for her to go, upsetting her, which isn't helped by the fact that he had already basically left her behind after she stole his shield for him. When Sharon is left alone at the team's safe house, she's attacked by mercenaries and the fight ends with her blowing the safe house up. By the time Steve, Sam, and Wanda get back, they can't find Sharon in the wreckage which causes Steve to feel immense guilt for his decision to leave her behind. When Steve meets Sharon again, who was rescued by Natasha, the two share an intimate hug.
• Their Bond: After Zelda's father dies of a heart attack (or so it seems), Zelda suffers from this. It blindsided her that her last conversation with her father had revolved around her anger over a corset. For the last several days Zelda had been mad at her father Daphnes because he was trying to marry her off. In hindsight, she finds it petty.
• To Hell and Back (Arrowverse): During an argument, Joe West, in the heat of the moment, calls his foster son Barry Allen "crazy". He immediately regretted it and tried to take it back, but the damage was done; it pushed Barry to go study abroad in China, which led to his ten-year disappearance and presumed death. Joe's guilt over it was only amplified when Iris blamed him for what happened, estranging them — those words ultimately cost him both his children.
• Twisted Sister: An Extended Ending has the Powerpuff Girls greatly regret scolding Bunny before she exploded.
• In Unexpected Surprise, Ladybug has a very emotional breakup with Chat Noir due to her still having feelings for another boy. When, a few days later, she cools off and tries to find him and apologize, he is nowhere to be found. Neither is Adrien, who went to America in order to give his Lady a chance with the other boy. It isn't until six years later that the matter is finally resolved.

Films — Animation

• Towards the end of All Dogs Go to Heaven, Charlie is accosted by his lifelong friend Itchy about spending too much time with Ann Marie and not enough time protecting themselves from their vengeful former partner Carface, resulting in his goons hunting Itchy down, roughing him up and burning down their casino. To get him off his back, Charlie yells at Itchy that they'll dump Ann Marie in an orphanage as soon as she's no longer useful to them... just as Ann Marie comes downstairs to hear the whole thing before she tells Charlie "You're not my friend. You're a bad dog!" and runs off, crying. This ends up being the last time either of them sees him alive, as Charlie makes his Heroic Sacrifice for Ann Marie a few minutes later. However, he manages to come back briefly as a ghost to make peace and say goodbye to her before ascending to heaven. As Itchy is sleeping when he does so (and looks as though he'd cried himself to sleep), he decides to let sleeping dogs lie and spares his friend the trauma of seeing him as a ghost, even if it means their friendship ended on an argument.
• The Book of Life has two of these moments:
  • Carlos and Manolo before the latter's death have an argument about Manolo refusing to kill a bull. By the time we cut back to the real world, Carlos is mourning beside his son's grave and only mellows when he also dies and witnesses his son taming the demonic bull with music.
  • The last thing Jaoquin says to Manolo before the latter dies was that he should have died instead of Maria. It certainly starts his Character Development in asking himself if a marriage to Maria was worth it, since she only will marry him so he will stay to protect San Angel.
• In Coco, Miguel tells his family that he wants nothing to do with them for hating music and runs away to be a musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Later, he breaks down crying into Héctor's arms over what he said, having realized he abandoned the people he loves to follow a murderous phony.
• The entirety of Finding Nemo is based on this: Marlin travels halfway around the world to save his son after he's captured by divers because he doesn't want the last thing Nemo says to him to be "I hate you."
  • In Finding Dory, he makes the same mistake by telling Dory to "Go wait over there and forget! It's what you do best!" after her obliviousness nearly gets Nemo killed by a huge squid, at which point she's captured and taken to the Marine Life Institute, a fact that Nemo makes sure Marlin doesn't forget.
• Ice Age: Continental Drift: After her father embarrasses her in front of all the teen mammoths, Peaches furiously states to Manny "I wish you weren't my father!". Shortly afterwards, the continent plates divide and separate Manny, Sid, and Diego away from Ellie and Peaches. As the iceberg holding her father drifts into the distance, Peaches sobs and blames herself for getting separated from her father since the last thing they did was argue.
  Manny: STAY ALIVE! No matter how long it takes, I WILL FIND YOU!
  Peaches: (sobbing) Mom, this is all my fault! If I had just--
  Ellie: Peaches! This is not your fault, okay?
  Peaches: What if I never see him again? And the last thing we did was fight!
  Ellie: Hey, your father is the toughest, most stubborn mammoth I've ever met! He'll come back for us. (wraps her trunk around Peaches) That's a promise.
• Mulan gets into a heated argument with her father after he accepts his conscription notice, voicing the fact that, given his age and his frail health, he could very well die. Fa Zhou shoots back, "I know my place; it is time you learned yours." This shocks Mulan and she goes out to cry privately. After some thinking, Mulan decides to take her father's place by disguising herself as a man and joins the army. Her family finds out and are shocked. Fa Zhou is left guilt-stricken after knowing the last words he said to her made her run away. Near the end of the film, he is seen sitting in the garden feeling sad over Mulan's disappearance, wondering if she's alive or dead.
• The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Eliza laments that the last thing she said to Darwin before her ability to talk to animals was taken away was: "Darwin, for once in your life, just! Be! QUIET!!"

Films — Live-Action

• A variation in April Showers with the person dying being the regretful one. As he lies dying, Mr. Blackwell regrets forgetting to say "I love you." to his wife on the morning of the shooting.
• In Click, after ending up in the future when his father is dead, Michael goes back to the last time he saw him, only to discover that he gave his father a disproportionately angry brush off, driving Michael to Manly Tears.
• In Field of Dreams, Ray tells Terence Mann about his estrangement with his father, admitting that when he was 17 he "packed his things, said something awful and left," only returning for his father's funeral. Later, he reveals what he said (with the implication it was something said in anger/youthful impulsiveness that he didn't really believe) and how his dad "died before I could take it back."
• In Forrest Gump, in Vietnam after Forrest carries a heavily wounded Bubba to safety:
  Narration: If I’d a known this was gonna be the last time me and Bubba was gonna talk, I’d a thought of something better to say.
  Forrest: Hey Bubba...
  Bubba: Hey Forrest. Forrest, why'd this happen?
  Forrest: You got shot.
• Freaks (2018): Chloe is a seven-year-old girl who is fed up with spending her life hiding indoors. She has an argument with her Properly Paranoid father and tells him "I hope you die," to which he replies "One day I'll be gone, and you'll regret saying that."
• The Fugitive. On the night of his wife's murder, Richard Kimble drops her off at home after a banquet after being called back to the hospital for surgery. She tells him "I'll wait up for you". When the flashback ends, Kimble is sitting in a police interrogation room with her words echoing in his head, utterly floored that the last words they exchanged were something so mundane.
• Gramps Is in the Resistance: While Nazis are about to execute hostages, resistant Jacques Frémontel, among them, is ready. His only regret is his last exchange with Mireille, the head of his resistance network, which was an argument. Thus, they'll stay angry at each other while Jacques wanted to patch things up.
• Home Alone:
  • Both Kevin and his mother say hurtful things to each other in their last meeting. Kevin angrily said he never wanted to see her or any of their family ever again for the rest of his life. Kate essentially tells him he should ask Santa for a new family since all he does is cause trouble. When they reunite, Kate apologizes to Kevin and understands if he doesn't forgive her, as a minor family argument is no excuse to accidentally forget and leave your young child alone for a few days. Kevin quickly forgives her.
  • Old Man Marley reveals to Kevin that many years ago, he had an argument with his estranged son, they both lost their tempers and said they do not wish to see each other again. Kevin encourages him to call his son and by the end of the movie, Marley and his son reconcile.
• Jumanji: In 1969, Alan Parrish gets into an argument with his father after being told that he wants to send him to a boarding school, with Alan saying to him "I'm never talking to you again!" Shortly afterwards, he starts the titular game with his schoolmate Sarah Whittle, however, he gets sucked into the game and Sarah's too terrified to continue. It isn't until 1995 that he's finally freed by Judy and Peter, who'd found the game, and he's heartbroken to discover that not only have his parents since passed away but that his father had spent the rest of his life and family fortune trying to find him after he disappeared. Thankfully, when the game is won, time gets reset to 1969, and they're able to reconcile, and in the improved timeline, Alan's parents are alive and well in the 1990s.
• Jurassic Park III: When Dr. Grant discovers that Billy stole a set of Velociraptor eggs for the sake of funding their research, he gives him a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, outright telling Billy that he's "no better than the people that built this place." Shortly afterwards, Billy pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice to save Eric from a flock of hungry Pteranodons, and Grant is shown regretting that that was the last thing he said to him.
• In The Karate Kid (2010), Mr. Han recalls he was arguing with his family before they died. He doesn't remember what it was about, but he hopes it was important.
• In Man of Steel, the last conversation between Clark and Jonathan was an argument, where Clark snapped that Jonathan wasn't his real father, just "some guy who found me in a field". To further twist the knife, Clark immediately regretted his heat-of-the-moment words and started to apologise - but never got to finish, as they were interrupted by the twister that claimed Jonathan's life. It's implied that his parting words weigh almost as heavily on Clark as his failure to save Jonathan. In the next movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Clark has a Dead Person Conversation with Jonathan, giving him some measure of closure.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Thor: The Dark World: Loki tells Frigga that she's not really his mother. That is the last time he ever sees her. He doesn't even get an invitation to her funeral. It's slightly alleviated by the fact both of them know he doesn't mean any of it, but it still clearly tears him apart and it shows when Thor comes for him — Loki is a Mess of Woe and furniture in his room is torn to pieces.
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron:
    • Pietro Maximoff Kill Steals Clint's robots and casually insults him, calling him a slow old man while running off with Wanda. Clint half-heartedly draws his bow in his general direction, muttering sarcastically "Nobody would know. Nobody. 'Last I saw him, an Ultron was sitting on him. Yeah, he'll be missed, that quick little bastard. I miss him already!'" Then at the climax, Clint prepares to use his body as a human shield in order to save an innocent child as Ultron strafes the area with the Quinjet's Gatling guns, only for Pietro to dive in front of both of them at the last second. The look in Clint's eyes says it all.
      Pietro: ...You didn't see that coming. (faceplants)
    • Wanda volunteers to stay behind to guard the drill to keep Ultron sentries at bay until the last evacuees are on the lifeboats. When Pietro catches up to her, she tells him to not worry about her and focus on getting the evacuees out, then come back for her. Due to his death, he never gets to do that.
      Wanda: Get the people on the boats!
      Pietro: I'm not going to leave you here.
      Wanda: I can handle these. (She blasts away an Ultron sentry) Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before. (Pietro hesitates) You understand?!
      Pietro: You know, I’m twelve minutes older than you.
      Wanda: (chuckles) Go.
  • Captain America: Civil War: Tony Stark is showing off BARF, virtual reality technology that allows a person to relive old memories and change them however they want. He relives the memory of the last conversation he had with his father and makes a point of telling him that he loves him. After turning off the device, he tells his audience that he wishes that was how it had really happened.
  • Avengers: Infinity War: The last words Thor says to Loki are that he is the worst brother. Shortly after that Loki attacks Thanos in an attempt to defend Thor, and the Mad Titan slowly strangles him to death. When Mantis later reads Thor's emotions, she lists tremendous guilt among other things.
• In Mowgli, this is not outright said, but is heavily implied to go through Mowgli's mind when he finds out Bhoot, his albino wolf best friend, was killed by John Lockwood some time after he had only said hurtful things to him.
• In Saw II, Eric Matthews has an argument with his estranged son Daniel after the latter is caught shoplifting, eventually culminating in Eric yelling at Daniel to leave, something he visibly regrets afterwards. Unfortunately, Daniel is kidnapped by the Jigsaw Killer shortly thereafter and thrust into a game, and though Daniel survives this ordeal unbeknownst to Eric, the latter is then kidnapped as well after forcing Jigsaw to reveal his son's whereabouts. Since Eric was held captive for six months culminating in his death in the fourth film, we know him and Daniel never had a chance to reconcile.
• So Close: After Sue gets into an argument with her older sister, Lynn, Sue apologizes to her sister by recording herself with her own camcorder and put it in front of Lynn's bedroom door. Sadly, it's the last time she saw Lynn as later Lynn is murdered while desperately saving her from getting arrested by Kong and the other police. Cue, Sue regrets refusing to believe and comply with her older sister's advice about her dangerous life as a criminal.
• Spider-Man:
  • In the first Spider-Man film, the very last thing Peter does to Uncle Ben before he's shot is yell at him to stop pretending to be his father... something which visibly upset Ben. Peter later laments that the last exchange they had was an argument.
    Peter Parker: I can't help thinking about... the last thing I said to him. He tried to tell me something important, and I threw it in his face.
  • This comes back at the end of the movie in a more redeeming way.
    Norman Osborn: I've been like a father to you... be a son to me now.
    Peter Parker: I have a father. His name was Ben Parker.
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man:
    Uncle Ben: You're a lot like your father. You really are, Peter, and that's a good thing. But your father lived by a philosophy, a principle really. He believed that...that if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things. That's what at stake here. Not a choice, responsibility.
    Peter: That is nice. That's really...that's great. That's all well and good, so where is he?
    Uncle Ben: What?
    Peter: Where is he? Where's my dad? He didn't think it was his responsibility to be here and tell me this himself?
    Uncle Ben: Oh, come on! How dare you?
    Peter: How dare I? How dare you?!
• The Spiderwick Chronicles: When it briefly appears that Jared will be trapped in the fairy realm, one of his regrets is that the last thing he ever told his mother was, "I hate you and I don't want to live with you!" Fortunately, he ends up being able to escape and gets a chance to fix it.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): Leonardo and Raphael get into an argument, and as Raph storms off, Leo yells "Go ahead, we don't need you!" Raphael is subsequently ambushed and beaten half to death. The guilt of those last words drives Leo to sit by Raphael's bedside for days until he finally wakes up.
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has a gut-wrenching example. The main character, Mildred, is having a barnburner of an argument with her teenage daughter, Angela. As Angela begins to storm out the door, she yells, "I hope I get RAPED!" over her shoulder. Mildred responds by shouting, "I hope you get raped, too!" at her daughter's back. The audience learns about this scene in a flashback after we've already learned that Angela was raped, murdered, and set on fire a few hundred yards from her house later that same evening.
• In Upstream Color, a man is revealed to be constantly rehashing the last words he had with his wife before she lapsed into a coma. She was trying to reconcile, but he was angry and dismissive.
• The Visit has the mother regret the events of the night she left home at nineteen and was estranged from her parents for the rest.

Literature

• Accidental Detectives: The last words Mike's cousin Sarah ever said to her father (who died in a farming accident a couple hours later) were that she hated him for not letting her go to a party. Sarah is deeply upset about this and as a result has trouble believing that his dying message "Love" was meant for her instead of just her mother.
• In And I Darken, Lada and Mehmed have a bitter fight: she wants to accompany him to battle, but he thinks her too precious to risk her harm. Lada's rage is cruel and immediate, and she doesn't regret it, not even when contemplating if those would be their last words, until she receives a letter informing her that Mehmed is dying, and those are their last words.
• Artemis Fowl: In the eighth book The Last Guardian, as Foaly is racing to save his wife, he tries desperately to remember his last words to her. He thinks it was "I love you", but he isn't sure. Fortunately, he's able to save her.
• The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. Tatiana gets a black eye from her father, causing Alexander to lay him out and Tatiana to get into a shouting match with her family. Her father is taken to hospital and dies when it's bombed by the Germans.
• Divergent: The last thing that Tris says to Al is that if he comes near her again, she'll kill him. He commits suicide the evening after, and Tris wonders if she was too hard on him. To be fair, Al did try to kill her...
• A Drowned Maiden's Hair: Eight-year-old Caroline Lambert got into a fight with her mother on the last day of vacation at Cape Calypso because she wanted to go swimming one last time and Mrs. Lambert said it wasn't safe to swim alone, and Caroline needed to help pack. Eventually Caroline took Mrs. Lambert's purse and went out to ride on the carousel, crowing that she was going to ride as many times as she wanted and her mother couldn't stop her. Mrs. Lambert snapped, "I don't want to stop you. It's worth the money to be rid of you. Go!" After Caroline's body was fished out of the ocean, Mrs. Lambert wondered if Caroline had drowned herself on purpose because of her words.
• In Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, after the massacre at the White Snow Temple, Song Lan lashed out at Xiao Xingchen and told him he didn't want to see him again. Those were the last words he ever said to his friend and he felt very guilty about it. He spent the next few years trying to find Xiao Xingchen but their reunion did not go the way either of them wanted as Xue Yang manipulated the blind Xiao Xingchen into unknowingly killing Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen would commit suicide once he realized what he had done. Song Lan (now a fierce corpse) would take the fragments of Xiao Xingchen's soul and wander the world, in hopes he would reunite with his friend one day.
  Song Lan: When he [Xiao Xingchen] wakes, [I'll] say "I'm sorry, it wasn't your fault".
• Harry Potter:
  • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, after Harry and the Weasley children have a brush with Death Eaters, Mrs. Weasley mentions that she'd never forgive herself if Fred and George had died when the last time they'd talked, she was chewing them out for their bad grades. Receives a humorous callback not long afterward, when Fred and George are acting suspiciously and Mrs. Weasley calls them on it, whereupon Fred puts on a pained expression and asks how she would feel if the Hogwarts Express crashed the next day and he and George died, and the last thing she had said to them was an unfounded accusation. Even Mrs. Weasley gets a laugh at that.
  • Aunt Petunia hates Harry so much, because, on top of her already being jealous of her Witch sister, her and Lily were not on speaking terms when she was killed by Voldemort. Petunia still harbors guilt over never reconciling with her and sees Harry as a constant reminder of her actions.
• If I Stay: Adam broke up with Mia before the crash because she couldn't promise to spend New Year's the next year with him. When he finally talks to her in the hospital, he's in tears.
• The last thing Claire said to her mother before the latter's death in I'm In Love With the Villainess was "I hate you!" after a petty argument. She deeply regrets having said that to her before her death, and in the immediate aftermath, locked herself in her bedroom for days crying her eyes out and wondering if she could see her mother again if she herself died.
• Interview with the Vampire: Louis's last words with his brother were a harsh argument — the brother claimed to have had a religious vision that they should sell their possessions to become missionaries, and Louis mocked him as delusional. The brother died in a fall immediately after, leaving Louis nearly suicidal with self-recrimination.
• Keeper of the Lost Cities: In Lodestar, Sophie is frustrated with Grady and Edaline for sending her to stay at Dex's instead of letting her stay to help defend from a potential attack. She is about to glare at them as she leaves but then realizes that if something goes wrong, it could be the last time she sees them. So instead, she tells them she loves them.
• Nina Tanleven: In The Ghost Let Go, Dolores Smiley's last words to her mother were "I HATE YOU!" before Mrs. Smiley and Dolores's boyfriend (the cause of the argument) were killed in a car crash while Dolores was horribly disfigured. The regret at those words and the fact that ghosts can't communicate with the living (except the protagonists) is what is causing Mrs. Smiley to stay, hence the title.
• Save the Enemy: The night Zoey's mom was murdered, the two of them got in a fight about why Zoey wouldn't study for her history test. Her mom walked out, saying she needed to cool off. Zoey yelled that she hated her, twice. Her mom didn't come back from the walk alive.
• A variation of this happens in the second A Series of Unfortunate Events book, The Reptile Room, when the night before Dr. Montgomery's murder, the Baudelaires are too preoccupied trying to guess Count Olaf's plan to tell him anything after the movie. The following morning when they see his corpse, Violet feels guilty for never getting to say thank you for the movie and tries to remember if at least they said it earlier.
• In The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, Thrall, while leaving for Outland, finds his old friend Cairne Bloodhoof waiting for him, who bitterly complains about his choice of Garrosh as Warchief. The two have an argument, and Thrall's last words are telling his friend that he has made his decision and it's up to him whether he helps Garrosh or undermines the Horde by being stubborn. Thrall considers apologizing, but the next thing he hears about Cairne is his death, which is partly Garrosh's fault.
• Station Eleven: The businessman who didn't get to speak to his family at all before the outbreak; the last phone call he ever made was a meaningless business call full of corporate jargon.
• The Sword of Saint Ferdinand: Subverted. Army captain Álvar Pérez tries to talk their soldiers into dropping their grudges and forgiving each other prior to the battle so that nobody has to regret their last words directed at each other. Pero Miguel pretends to agree to make peace with García de Vargas, but in reality, he is hoping for one chance to come closer to Diego and kill him.
• Dave Barry's novel Tricky Business: Wally, the protagonist, is lost at sea with a wounded woman, trying to stay alive until help comes. He's kept it together reasonably well until he remembers that the last thing he said to his mother as he left the house was to shrug off her offer of an umbrella ("Mom, for God's sakes, it's purple"), and then to drive away without saying goodbye. Then he starts sobbing like a baby.
• In Wuthering Heights, after Catherine (I) dies, her former friend and sister-in-law Isabella expresses private sadness to servant Nelly Dean because they parted in anger over their love triangle with Heathcliff (who loved Catherine but married Isabella for spite). She has No Sympathy for Heathcliff's grief, though, because Heathcliff has abused her throughout their brief marriage.
• Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth: When his emotionally distant father is on his deathbed, Nathan avoids facing his own feelings by reading interesting scientific facts out loud until the father curses him out in his last moments. Nathan's brother later chews Nathan out for spouting trivia rather than providing any affection or comfort.
  Henry: "Dad, I love you" — that was all that was required! Oh, you miserable bastard...

Live-Action TV

• In 8 Simple Rules, the last thing that Bridget said to her father before he died was "I hate you."
• Arrow:
  • At the start of Season 2, Thea Queen is refusing to visit her mother in prison. Then Thea is kidnapped and nearly killed by vigilantes, making her realise that she might have died letting her mother think that she hated her, so she visits her the next day to reconcile. When Moira Queen is murdered towards the end of the season at a time when Thea is again estranged from her, this fear becomes real.
  • In "Past Sins," Earth 2's Laurel reveals to Felicity what happened to her father, Earth 2's Quentin Lance. On her 13th birthday, she threw a temper tantrum and told her father that she hated him because he forgot to pick up the cake. Her father felt so bad that he went back out to get it, only to be killed by a drunk driver.
• A late episode of Barney Miller depicts the murder of Mr. Cotterman, a recurring guest star throughout the series. A stunned Det. Harris says he can't even remember if he'd said goodbye to the man or wished him well when he last saw him. (For the record, he did.)
• Batwoman (2019). When Kate Kane is apparently killed at the start of Season 2, Alice reveals to her father Jacob that she was Batwoman, and takes gleeful pleasure in pointing out that Jacob and his Crow Security mooks tried to kill Batwoman in the Season One finale.
  Alice: Did you spend your last precious moments together firing a gun at her? You got your wish, Daddy. Batwoman is dead. And she died knowing her father hated her.
• In the season 3 premiere of The Borgias, Rodrigo is dying of poison (although he eventually pulls through), and Lucrezia feels guilty because the last thing she said to him was that she was glad her brother Juan (Rodrigo's favorite) was dead.
• The Boys (2019). Hughie Campbell feels terrible about having to live with the fact that his last words to Robin were "Don't you ever besmirch Billy Joel." It was playful lovers' banter, but still not the very last thing you'd want to say to your beloved.
• Parodied in Brooklyn Nine-Nine where Boyle states that if anything happens to Jake he'd never forgive himself since his last words to him were "No, you're the man". When Terry says that sounds pretty nice, Boyle says nice isn't good enough.
• In Burn Notice, Fiona and her sister had a fight before her sister was killed in a shooting during The Troubles, and she's always regretted it. Her sister's death motivated Fiona to join the IRA.
• Cold Case:
  • In the episode "Disco Inferno", the father of the murder victim the detectives investigate confesses to this, for the last words he said to his son, in reaction to said son's future life choice, were "I... renounce... you." The son died later that night.
  • Similarly in "Superstar", the Victim of the Week's father reveals that the last time he spoke to his daughter, he tried to convince her to drop out of college to focus full-time on tennis. They argued about this and he accused her of being unappreciative towards him before leaving.
  • In the episode "Shuffle, Ball Change", the victim and his brother got into a shoving match that resulted in the brother injuring his knee, possibly derailing his wrestling career. Their infuriated father told the victim, "God help you, Maurice". The boy disappeared soon afterwards, leaving the father thoroughly haunted by the thought that his son had run away from home thinking that his father hated him, and even more torn up when he learned that his son had in fact been murdered and that either way, those were the last words that he said to him.
• Played for Laughs in Community when the group worries that Pierce, The Friend Nobody Likes, is dead after he's late for a meeting:
  Troy: Oh, man, the last thing I said to him was "suck it".
  Britta: Me too.
• In Criminal Minds:
  • Elle's father died when she was eight and the last thing she said to him was "I hate you, Daddy!" (she was angry that he didn't have time to teach her to ride her bike). Years later, she still regrets this.
  • When Hotchner leaves the team, Garcia's regret is that she can't even remember what the last thing she said to him was, because she didn't know it would be the last time they talked. She declares that it's too much pressure to say something deep and meaningful every time she talks to someone, but she does make sure to tell Rossi "I love you" before hanging up.
  • The unsub in "Hanley Waters" is driven by grief over her son's death, compounded by several factors: Survivor Guilt (paramedics saved her instead of him), the fact that he'd died on his birthday, and the last thing he heard was her yelling at him (she was driving and he was kicking the back of her seat).
• Daredevil (2015): One of Frank Castle's final moments with his daughter was refusing to read her favorite book to her before bed. She was killed by criminals the following night:
  Castle: I said, "No, Daddy's too tired, see. But I... I'll read to you tomorrow night." I'll read to you tomorrow night. I promised.
• In Dead Like Me, Joy's last words to George before her daughter's death are (in response to George's comment about "those are funeral clothes"): "There's going to be a funeral if you don't get your ass out of bed! Now move it!" George even remarks in the narration, "Boy, is she going to be sorry." Joy does regret being so hard on George.
• Forever: The night before Jo's husband Sean left for the trip he died on, he and Jo had a huge fight, and Jo left early the next day so she wouldn't have to apologize.
  Jo Martinez: The last words I said to my husband were in anger.
• General Hospital's Tom Hardy had a contentious relationship with his adoptive/stepfather, the beloved Chief of Staff Steve Hardy—despite being a successful doctor himself, Tom always felt that nothing he did was ever good enough to please Steve (and Tom's recent divorce was just the latest disappointment). After Steve died, Tom sadly confides to his mother Audrey that they had an argument the night before. She ruefully declares "Why should last night have been any different from all others?"
• The George Lopez Show:
  • There is a tear-jerking scene where Angie remembers that the last time she spoke to her mother before her death, she said she would never forgive her for cheating on her father and called her a "selfish tramp".
  • Parodied in "The Trouble with Ricky", where George blames Ricky for the burning of his garage and bemoans the "death" of his golf clubs, saying that the last words to his lucky putter were "I hate you".
• The Golden Girls. Sophia has an argument with a friend. Several days later, the woman comes to apologize, declaring, "At our age, the last thing you say to someone could be... the last thing you say."
• In The Good Place, we find out via flashback what Chidi's last moments were like. He was in the midst of an argument with his lifelong best friend, Uzo, which ended with Uzo shouting, "It is literally impossible to be your friend!" Not even thirty seconds later, Chidi's killed in a freak accident, leaving Uzo standing there in utter horror.
• An episode of Home Improvement has Jill telling her father that she was too sick for him to visit. He dies shortly thereafter, and the rest of the episode focuses on how Jill regrets lying to him and not being able to spend his last moments with him. In another episode, Mr. Binford dies, and Al is full of guilt over having been "curt" to him the last time they spoke.
• Homicide Hunter's Joe Kenda made sure to tell his wife and kids that he loved them every time he left for work because he didn't want this, should he ever fail to come home.
• Inverted in How I Met Your Mother. After Marshall's dad dies, his family decides to have the funeral eulogies based around the last words he said to each of them. Marshall gets distressed because the last thing his dad said to him was that he should rent "Crocodile" Dundee 3, whereas everyone else has profound, meaningful moments to talk about. But then it turns out there was a rather touching message waiting for Marshall on his voicemail... And he still goes with the Crocodile Dundee story when talking at the funeral.
• It's Okay to Not Be Okay: Eun-ja's backstory. After her daughter got her an expensive present Eun-ja yelled at her for wasting money, and they had an argument. Eun-ja's daughter angrily walked away, into the street, and was immediately struck and killed by a car. Eun-ja's grief over this drove her into a full-fledged mental breakdown which is why she's in a mental hospital.
• The King Loves: Won's last words to his mother were telling her to leave the palace if she didn't like how things were going. He regrets this after she dies.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
  • One episode features Munch confessing that he told his dad that he hated his guts just before his dad committed suicide. Naturally, he regrets this.
  • In "Murdered at a Bad Address", Olivia invites her half-brother Simon to lunch as an opportunity for him to meet Noah, when Simon doesn't show up a furious Olivia leaves a voicemail basically telling Simon that she made a mistake by asking him to lunch and not to bother calling her again not knowing that he was dead from an overdose.
  • In season 7's "Strain", the last time the father of the Victim of the Week had seen him was six months earlier after the death of the latter's mother, the two argued about caring for her and never had the chance to apologize to him. He also reveals that when the VOTW came out to him, he admits that he reacted by wishing that he died.
• A variation occurs in I Love Lucy. When Lucy advises Fred to buy Ethel some ugly pants, they spend the rest of the episode fighting and ignoring each other. Their spat carries on into the theater where they go see a play that centers on two protagonists that also had a falling out and would bad-mouth each other. When the husband of one of the characters informs his wife that her friend had died, she regrets parting ways in such a bad manner. This brings Lucy and Ethel to tears, and they forgive each other, and also causes a man whose experience was being ruined by their fight to break down and hug them as well.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: Bambang and his father's phone call to each other in episode 61, where Slamet wants to speak with Melani, but Bambang was arguing with Melani at the moment so he hangs up the call, turns out to be their last. When Slamet dies in the finale, Bambang expresses regret that he didn't get Melani to speak with his father when he had the chance.
• Invoked by Phil on Modern Family to get Claire to tell the truth. As he falls asleep before his surgery, he points out that the dangers and says, "And if I never wake up, I'd hate for the last thing you ever said to me to be a lie."
• Motherland: Fort Salem: Raelle still feels guilty about her last words to her mother being part of an argument.
• Mouse (2021): Bong-yi has an argument with her grandmother and doesn't get a chance to apologise before her grandmother is murdered.
• In the opening of "Into the Fold" from The Orville, Dr. Finn's older son, Ty, tells his mother that she "sucks" because he's unhappy with her for making him come on the family trip when he doesn't want to go on it. Later, after they've crashed on a hostile alien planet, he expresses regret for it, but when they finally get back in contact on the planet, she assures him that she knows people sometimes say stuff like this in anger and it doesn't mean they don't love each other.
• Riverdale: In Season 5, Betty and her older sister Polly get into a massive fight about both the former not being there for the family and the latter’s criminal activities. Polly goes missing right after, and Betty vows to find her sister both for the sake of her kids and to reconcile with her.
• Parodied in the Season One finale of The Sopranos, "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano": Mikey Palmice's last words to his wife as he is leaving for a jog are "go take a Midol", to which she responds by giving him the finger. Later, after he has been killed, his widow is being interviewed on TV, tearfully saying that his last words were to tell her how much he loved her.
• Supernatural: Bobby became a hunter after his wife, Karen, was possessed by a demon, but what really eats at him is the last conversation they had.
  Bobby: Biggest regret of my life, this fight. You'd think it was when I had to stab her to death, but... no. All through that — I was thinking we never got to get past this. If I'd have known, I'd have said anything she wanted to hear.
• In That '70s Show, Red's mother dies as Eric is driving her home. Because she was being a heartless crow (like usual), no one had anything good to say about her but were still heartbroken when she was gone.
  Red: I didn't say "I love you," or even "See you later." No, the last thing I said to her was "Show me tail lights."
  Eric: ...Dad, the last thing I said to Grandma was "It wouldn't kill you to be nice once in a while." But I guess it did because then she died.
• Young Sheldon: In "Cape Canaveral, Schrödinger's Cat, and Cyndi Lauper's Hair", in Present!Sheldon's narration at the end of the episode, after a disastrous trip that leads to them missing the rocket launch, he still admits that it was the best family road trip that he ever had...and regrets that he never said that to his father before George eventually passed away.

Music

• The Garth Brooks song "The Beaches of Cheyenne" is about a woman who "just went crazy, screaming out his name" upon hearing that her husband was killed by a rodeo bull in Cheyenne, Wyoming after they got into an argument about his rodeo career and she told him she didn't care if he ever came back from Cheyenne. The grieving woman's breakdown causes her to seemingly commit Suicide by Sea (although she keeps reappearing to people in a Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane way).
• The song "The Last Thing She Said" is all about this trope, except that the woman with regrets is actually the one in danger of dying.
• This is the theme of Kris Allen's "Live Like We're Dying". It's about trying to avoid this, and Never Got to Say Goodbye, for you or your loved ones.

Radio

• Adventures in Odyssey: After her boyfriend Mitch is killed during the Novacom Saga Connie spends part of an episode trying to remember what the last thing she said to him was, believing that it was "probably something really stupid". She also expresses regret for not telling Eugene how much she cared for him as her best friend before he and his wife went on the run from Andromeda. At the end of the episode, she talks about this with Whit, who tells her that they have to trust that "God will fill in the blanks for all the things we should have said"; Connie counters that they shouldn't expect Him to before telling Whit that she loves him.

Roleplay

• In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, Harriet got in an argument with her parents just before they left in their car and died in an accident. She feels so guilty about her last words that she blames herself for what happened and has fallen into a deep depression as a result of it.

Theatre

• In Hamilton, the last thing Eliza Hamilton says to her husband onstage is an annoyed, "Well, I'm going back to sleep." Alexander, secretly on his way to a Duel to the Death and seemingly seeking to avert this trope, calls after her, "Hey... best of wives and best of women."
• In Into the Woods, the Baker and his wife split up to search for Jack while the wife leaves their infant son with Little Red Riding Hood. The Baker, however wonders if that's a safe idea with a giant wandering through the kingdom (several people had died up to that point), and it leads to the two of them arguing. Shortly thereafter, the Baker's wife is also crushed by the giant. While the Baker doesn't mention their argument again after her death, it seems more than likely that his grief is enhanced by regret.
  Baker's Wife: Will only a giant's foot stop your arguing?
• In Ride the Cyclone, our narrator is The Amazing Karnak, an electronic carnival fortune teller that can actually see the future. Karnak's last words to the six main characters in life were instructions to ride the cyclone roller coaster that he knew would kill them. As he was stuck on Family Fun Mode, he couldn't warn them. This is what motivates him to create the musical—an apology by way of eulogy.

Video Games

• Late in one route of Blaze Union, Siskier and Jenon playfully make fun of each other while rescuing Distressed Dude King Ordene before splitting up in hopes of getting him out of danger faster, culminating in Siskier calling Jenon an idiot. Jenon winds up gravely injured, then falling into and being washed away by the castle waterways. Siskier discusses this with protagonist Garlot while the two are trying to find Jenon later on.
• Catherine: The last time Morgan saw his wife before she was murdered, they were having an argument, which culminated in Morgan telling her to "Get Out!". He Never Got to Say Goodbye.
• Final Fantasy XIII: In their last conversation, Lightning chewed Serah out for expecting her to believe her story about becoming a l'Cie and harshly drove her out of the house. The next time they see each other, Serah crystallizes in Lightning's arms before the latter can actually apologize.
  Lightning: Serah... I should have listened to you.
• In Fire Emblem: Awakening, during the Bad Future, a girl named Severa and her Action Mom Cordelia have an argument about Cordelia's thoughts on her First Love, Chrom. At the height of the fight, Severa accuses Cordelia of not loving her father enough and still being hung up on Chrom, and isn't convinced even when Cordelia tells her it's not true... The day later, Cordelia dies in battle. And Severa never forgives herself for that.
• Galaxy Angel: On Mint's route in Eternal Lovers, when it seems that she and Tact have finally cleared up their issues, they end up having another spat due to Mint's inability to be sincere and open about her feelings for him. She clearly regrets it afterwards and plans on apologizing to him during the EDEN ball, but ends up at ground zero when an explosive goes off in the hall and trapped under debris. She desperately tries to call out for him telepathically, but when it seems he won't come, she laments that she's going to die there without being able to apologize and tell him how much she loves him. Thankfully, Tact manages to find her and rescue her and they properly make up immediately.
• Game of Thrones (Telltale) potentially has this happen - if Rodrik spares the traitor, Talia calls him a coward and storms out. Rodrik can potentially die shortly thereafter in the Whitehill ambush. Talia expresses this sentiment upon learning of his death.
• In the Grand Theft Auto IV mission "Three Leaf Clover'', Packie says he regrets being so mean to his friend Michael in their last conversation, Michael having just been killed in the course of a bank robbery.
• In off-screen events from The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Princess Alfin and Prince Cedric had a big fight the morning of the events that changed everything and separated her from the rest of the royal family. She was planning to make up with him that night and in Cold Steel II is deeply upset about it. Rean tells her not to blame herself and assures her she'll still have the chance.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, this turns up between King Rhoam and his daughter Zelda. Rhoam had frequently scolded Zelda for her inability to unlock the Royalty Super Power that could defeat Calamity Ganon. He also becomes a Fantasy-Forbidding Father, scolding her researching the ancient Guardians on one of her few days off while having nothing to show in her efforts to awaken that power. On Zelda's 17th birthday, when she plans to pray on Mount Lanayru in one last attempt to get that power, both their diaries note that they have not spoken to each other since the latter incident but plan to make up after Zelda returns, with Rhoam, in particular, admitting that he has been too harsh on her lately. Ganon ends up emerging and killing everyone in Hyrule Castle, including Rhoam, that very day.
• Inverted in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan with the song "Over the Distance". While no doubt the lady regrets the big fight she had with her loved one before he died, the story takes the perspective of the ghost, who was given a chance to contact her one last time to apologize.
  • Played straight in the sequel with the level "Believe", where Mana, jealous of her sister Rina's skating skills, wishes she would just disappear. Unfortunately, she'd get her wish the hard way when Rina, still affected by her sister's words, fails to notice a truck as she crosses the street. The crux of the level is helping Mana live her sister's dream even when she feels it's her fault she died.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Should the Jedi Knight redeem Bengel Morr, Orgus Din's former padawan who fell to the Dark Side, they will receive a message from him after Orgus' death where he tells the Knight that he never got to apologize to him for all of his evil actions.
• Summertime Saga: Eve was always fighting with her parents before their deaths because she wanted to be like her Cool Big Sis, who they believed had ruined her life. Her last words to them was that she hated them and wanted them to just go away before they were hit by another car. Her opening up to MC about this is a huge step in her Character Development.
• The Tiamat Sacrament: Az'uar calls out his father, Tamanir, for voting alongside the majority of the Great Seven to seal themselves away and betraying Ilisrei. When he gets Tamanir's Soul Gem, he learns that Tamanir only did so to add a clause that allows the seal to be broken by another dragon, allowing Tamanir and Ilisrei's children to undo the seals and gain the Great Sevens' soul gems. Az'uar then regrets lashing out at Tamanir and laments that he can't make up with his father now that the latter is a soul gem.
• The World Ends with You: Eri regrets not being able to apologize to her friend Shiki before her death; she had offended Shiki by telling her she wasn't meant to be a designer when she meant she was much better as a seamstress. Shiki, playing the Reaper's Game, was listening as Eri told someone about this, and hearing this renews her resolve to win the game and see Eri again.

Visual Novels

• In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Hajime notes after seeing a vision of Chiaki, who had been executed the previous chapter, that he keeps forgetting to say something. Shortly afterwards, while leaving the Neo World Program, he remembers to thank her for all the help she's done. Though it's played like an Aborted Declaration of Love.

Webcomics

• The Bikini Bottom Horror: As he is overwhelmed by the starfishes, Squidward remembers the last thing he ever said to SpongeBob on the day of the attack. He coldly turned down SpongeBob's offer to go Jellyfishing with him and then angrily told him that the two were not friends. After escaping a Patrick, he found SpongeBob's remains and took his tie as a memento while he started fighting back against the starfishes.
• In this Buttersafe comic, a sailor realizes ahead of time that this is the last time he'll ever see Claire, and somehow he still manages to screw up his goodbye.
• Charby the Vampirate: Blaine regrets that his last interaction with his parents was an argument, following which he ran upstairs to his room. When he came back downstairs hours later to apologize it was to the sight of his parents' mangled corpses being fed on by a vampire.
• In Get Medieval, Asher spends the whole story arc regretting that his last words to his girlfriend before ending up stranded on medieval Earth were to tell her to buy cat food.
• Unsounded: Unfortunately for Captain Hetr, his death occurred moments before a vitriolic conversation with his subordinate about the "weight of a soul" experiment.
  Hetr: My name will blaze on history's page! My sacrifices leave schoolchildren in breathless awe! My soul is not a fart-
  (Stab)
  Hetr: Don't let those be my last words.
  Toma: Don't worry, no one's ever gonna look them up.

Web Animation

• Paper Puppets: In "Platinum Puppets", Bottle listens to Chainsaw over her friends and Chainsaw makes her eliminate Post-It Note, she tries to apologize and regrets her vote on him, but its shut when the recently eliminated Post-It Note rejects it. And Bottle has Tears of Remorse in her eyes that her and Post-It Note's friendship has wrecked.

Web Video

• The Cry of Mann:
  • Jack admits he wasn't even able to say goodbye to Jouglat before he left for the war, being too upset by the news, and eventually got used to the idea that his brother would die a soldier. By the time he returned, Jack was so wrapped up in his art show, he cared more about Jouglat's lack of interest in art than he did about the fact that his brother was actually home again.
  • Jouglat's last conversation with Tank Mann was an argument over whether or not he should go to warr; he later admits that he wish he and his father never fought at all, now that Tank is missing with no signs of a return.
• Inverted in Red vs. Blue, as the Director's obsession with recreating his late wife Allison through AI is implied to be because she didn't believe in saying goodbye.
• In the Darker and Edgier Thomas & Friends web series Sodor: Dark Times, James’ final interaction with Henry before the latter is killed by Alfred is a cruel rebuttal onto Henry asking if James could take his train. This deleted scene shows James apologising to Henry, far, far too late.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: In episode 19 of season 4, Lady & Peebles, when Lady Rainicorn is worried about Jake going missing, she frets that the last thing she said to him was complaining that the Vietnamese noodles he made were too tough. Downplayed, as Jake ends up fine in the end.
• Arcane: Vi seriously comes to regret that her final words to Powder are saying she really is a jinx while blaming her for the death of their family. She even tries to take back calling her a jinx when they reunite. However, Jinx becoming her new name is the least of the psychological damage inflicted.
• Batman Beyond: In the pilot episode "Rebirth", Terry bitterly regrets his last conversation with his father before he was murdered.
  Terry: I yelled at him, Mom. He grounded me and I wouldn't listen. The things I said— [his mother hugs him] I'm such a jerk...
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold has Bruce himself being bratty on Christmas Morning after getting his father's nutcracker soldier instead of a "Swashbuckler" toy. His parents bring him to the "Swashbuckler" movie and he still refuses to lighten up. Doesn't take a genius to think of what happens next...
• Clone High parodied this, along with other overly melodramatic story cliches, in the episode Litter Kills: Literally. JFK has a huge fallout with his best friend Poncey (a clone of explorer Ponce De Leon introduced specifically to be killed off in this episode) and tells Poncey he hates him, just minutes before Poncey is killed by the copious amounts of trash littering the schoolyard. To further make fun of this trope, normally Poncey tells everyone how much he loves them before leaving, just in case they never see each other again.
• In the Code Lyoko episode "Killer Music", Ulrich has a big fight with Odd before storming out. Right after he leaves, Odd ends up in a coma (and the process looked to be quite painful). Ulrich is clearly devastated that the last thing Odd heard from him was a bunch of insults.
• In the second season finale of F is for Family, things start on an incredibly depressing note due to a series of escalating feuds between Frank and Sue, fueled by their respective plights. (Frank is attempting a Zany Scheme to make his ex-boss Duhnbarton rehire him, while Sue is on the verge of unveiling a new invention that she's been developing under the nose of her direct superiors.) After a heated argument, Sue asks Frank if he's got anything better to say before leaving. Frank thinks for a minute, declares "Breakfast sucked," and heads out. Unfortunately, Frank gets taken hostage by a hijacker. Before confronting the gun-wielding thug, he openly declares that he regrets his last words to Sue.
• In Gargoyles, after Demona (apparently) sacrifices herself to save Angela, the daughter she had just recently met, Angela immediately regrets the last thing she said to her was that she hated her.
• In the God, the Devil and Bob episode "Bob's Father" Bob visits his father in the hospital and just as Bob's leaving the room his father imitates the flatline noise as a joke just to see how he would react. Bob angrily tells him he can go to Hell and his father dies a second later. Initially, Bob is afraid that just by saying that he condemned him to Hell, but God tells him it doesn't work that way. Later God arranges one last meeting between Bob and his father so they can part on better terms.
• Gravity Falls: While it’s not a death, Stanley deeply regrets that his last interaction with Stanford before the latter was sucked into the Portal was a massive fight and Stan telling Ford that he was a terrible brother.
  • Likewise, after Stan's memory was wiped to stop Bill, Ford regrets that almost all of their interactions since his return have been negative. Luckily, he gets a chance to make things right.
• Invincible (2021): All of Mark's friends get this in the finale of the first season. The last time they spoke with each other, all of their conversations ended on bad terms, with William calling Mark a terrible boyfriend to Amber, Amber breaking up with him over his decision to maintain a secret identity with her, and Eve comparing him to her Abusive Dad. Then they all are forced to watch as Mark is beaten nearly to death by his own father on television.
• Jerrica from Jem has some regrets about lashing out towards her mother for being away so often the day she died in an airplane crash. Jerrica even refused to give her mother a hug and goodbye kiss because she was upset.
• King of the Hill: In "Death Picks Cotton", when Hank finally comes to terms with the fact his father Cotton is dying, Peggy takes him to the hospital so he can say his final words to him. Hank tells Cotton that he loves him, but Cotton angrily berates him for showing such soft emotions to another man, so Hank hastily attempts to backtrack and say he doesn't love him to try and appease him, only for Cotton to die right then. Hank is devastated that his final words to his dad were "I don't love you", but Peggy, noting how much an abusive Jerkass Cotton was to Hank all his life, thinks they were the perfect parting words. It turns out Cotton didn't actually die yet though.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode The Perfect Pear, which reveals the backstory of Applejack's, Big Mac's and Apple Bloom's long-deceased parents, it turns out their mother Buttercup was actually of Pear family which remained in long-standing feud with Apple family, but loved their father Bright Macintosh nonetheless. When Buttercup married Bright Mac and refused to leave him, her father Grand Pear effectively disowned her and left, never to see her again. Over the years, though, he came to regret his own actions and in present time, with both Bright Mac and Buttercup now long dead, Grand Pear is even unable to apologize to his daughter and take back his hurtful words.
• Played with in the Grand Finale of The Owl House where it's the dead person who expresses regret post-mortem. Luz ends up being killed by Belos' Meat Moss after Taking the Bullet for the Collector (don't worry, she gets better). She tries to say something emotionally impactful to Eda and King before she expires, but admits that she can't come up with the right words. It's only after she dies and her soul is sinking into the waters of the In Between Realm that she realizes what she actually wanted to say was "thank you for everything".
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): At the end "Twisted Sister", Bunny, an awkward attempt at making a fourth Powerpuff Girl, saves the main trio from a mob of escaped crooks before destabilizing and exploding. When the girls come to and see what's left of her, they're totally devastated because the last thing they said to her was "Bunny do bad!" for her prior incompetence.
  Bubbles: She was good all along. We were the ones who were bad...
• In the Rugrats episode "Together at Last," Phil goes through this. After he and Lil have an especially nasty fight over a Reptar doll, Betty decides to separate them for the day and takes Lil next door to Tommy's house. But soon the twins miss each other, and each sneaks next door to try to see the other, inadvertently switching places. When Phil finds Lil's hair ribbon (she accidentally lost it earlier) with Spike the dog nearby, he jumps to the conclusion that Spike ate Lil, and is filled with guilt about their fight. He calls "Lil, I'm sorry!" into Spike's mouth, and later sobs that if he had known this would happen, Lil could have had the Reptar doll.
• The Simpsons:
  • When Maude Flanders was killed at the Springfield Race Track, she was just returning from getting hot dogs from the concession stand. As a result, Ned was left with the regretful parting words "No footlongs".
    Homer: Yeah, you probably should have said something romantic, like 'I love you'.
  • Implied with Homer and his mother Mona. During Mona's final appearance, Homer blew up at Mona for never being there for him and putting her various agendas ahead of him. Later that night, Homer cooled down and made an apology card for her. Only to find that she died sometime in the night.
  • Marge once worries that her last words to Homer would be "Clip your toenails; they look like Fritos!"
  • In the 500th episode, when the family is going to the bomb shelter for an emergency drill, Homer says if anyone has to fart, do it now. When Marge asks what if those were his last words, he replies that his last words will be "I can outrun that lion!"
  • In the first episode of the twenty-sixth season, Rabbi Krustofsky's last words to his son Krusty before dying are "I always thought you were just ehh..." This sends Krusty into a deep depression.
• Smiling Friends: In the aptly titled "Charlie Dies And Doesn't Come Back", the last exchange Pim and Charlie have before the title event occurs is getting into a heated argument over the latter's exhausting cynicism and laziness and the former's inconsiderate need to maintain a positive mood. At Charlie's funeral, Pim is visibly shown taking his death the hardest. Thankfully, Charlie gets better.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Whatever Happened to SpongeBob?", SpongeBob's friends discover that he's run away from Bikini Bottom so he won't screw everything up anymore, and they realize the last thing they did was call him "Idiot boy" and tell him to get lost.
  Mr. Krabs: What am I gonna do without me fry cook?!
  Patrick: What am I gonna do without my best friend?! (starts crying) I should never have been mean to you!
  Sandy: I shoulda never kicked you out of my house! (cries)
  Squidward: (near tears) If I'd known that was the last time I'd ever see SpongeBob— (happily) I would have slammed the door in his face even harder! (starts laughing while everyone else cries)
• Star Wars Rebels: At one point Ahsoka reflects on her time in the Clone Wars and how the last interaction she ever had with Anakin and Obi-Wan was just before they ran off to save Palpatine from General Grievous (it was not a happy reunion). While she doesn't explicitly say this, it's quite clear she regrets never having the chance to make proper peace with them. Her remorse nearly leads to her death in the Season 2 finale, as she stays on Malachor to face Darth Vader out of a refusal to abandon Anakin again, only surviving thanks to Ezra's future self saving her through the World Between Worlds.
• Steven Universe: Blue Diamond is implied to be suffering from this. A flashback in "Can't Go Back" shows what was probably her last conversation with Pink Diamond, and her part is basically scolding Pink for dragging her feet with her colony (somewhat understandable, as "Jungle Moon" shows that Pink Diamond had previously thrown tantrums about getting one) and telling her that Rose Quartz was no threat and that "as long as you are there to rule, this colony will be completed". Soon afterwards, Rose shattered Pink Diamond, causing the colony to remain incomplete. It's been thousands of years since then, and Blue is still in mourning. Yellow is implied to invert this: she was there during the entire last conversation between Blue and Pink, but instead of saying something, she stood in angry silence with her back to Pink and her nose in the air, refusing to look at her. In actuality, this conversation double-subverts this trope. Blue and Yellow eventually find out that Pink wasn't shattered and that these words were actually an Unwitting Instigator of Doom: it was probably this conversation that finally convinced Pink a) the other Diamonds didn't love or care about her, and b) the only way she could possibly spare Earth (which she had grown to love) was to fake her own shattering and frame her alter ego Rose Quartz for it. But while Yellow and Blue find out that Pink did survive for thousands of years longer than they assumed, they also learn that Pink still died twelve years before the start of the story in order to bring her son into existence, and her son Steven also forces them to acknowledge the abusive home life they had trapped Pink within. Once they finally accept that Steven isn't his mother, they have to re-face the fact that Pink is genuinely Deader than Dead, never once wanted to return after having fled them, and likely died believing they didn't love her... and they will never be able to reconcile with her. They have to live with the fact that this last painful conversation, emblematic of all of the mistreatment they put Pink through, is still something they can never take back.

Real Life

• Upon the death of Henry the Young King - who had rebelled against his father, King Henry II, the elder king who had refused to see him fearing a trick, remarked, "He cost me much, but I wish he had lived to cost me more."
• Referenced in this article published December 15, 2012, the day after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school, in which the author describes how she made a vow that the last words that she said to her children before going to bed at night would always be "I love you," and encourages others to do the same.
  Hey! Get back in your bed. I love you.
• Mike Starr, the former bassist of Alice in Chains, admitted to having this during his appearance on Celebrity Rehab. He told those in attendance, which included Layne Staley's mother, that the last time he talked to Layne, he urged him to call 911 due to his ailing condition from drug use. Layne refused, and this sparked an argument that ended with Starr storming out. As he left, he heard Layne call out to him "Not like this, don't leave like this." Since Layne is believed to have died the next day, this was the last conversation they had. Starr blamed himself for Layne's death until he died nearly a decade later in 2011.
• While touring with Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings was supposed to fly with Holly on a chartered plane to their next destination, but gave up his seat to another musician on the tour (The Big Bopper) who was ill, taking a bus instead. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to be on the plane, he joked, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Jennings joked back, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." Tragically, the plane did crash in what would become known as The Day the Music Died, killing everyone on board. Jennings was haunted by those words for the rest of his life.
• On a para-social level, many Nintendo fans suffered this and a case of My God, What Have I Done? after company CEO Satoru Iwata prematurely passed away on July 11, 2015 due to medical complications. Their last communication with him was anger and disappointment towards Nintendo's E3 2015 presentation, which included many divisive games such as Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. Meanwhile, Iwata's last correspondence with the fanbase was apologizing and promising next year would be better. This apology was actually referring to problems regarding the quality of the presentation broadcast for Japanese audiences, not the actual content of the presentation, but fans were nevertheless regretful that Iwata died after they expressed so much vitriol towards him.
• Craig Scott recalls that the last time he saw his sister Rachael, he was arguing with her on the way to their high school. Hours later, she became the first victim of the Columbine massacre.
• In the HBO documentary "Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy", her sons William and Harry outright described themselves as "haunted" by their final phone call with her — they were vacationing in Balmoral with their father and grandparents and hurriedly ended the call to resume whatever fun activity they had been participating in. She was killed in a car accident merely hours later.
• A unique example in the case of Johnny Depp and Hunter S. Thompson. The two were good friends as a result of Depp living with Thompson for a year to prep for filming Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Before he died by suicide, Thompson left a voicemail message for Depp that, for reasons unknown, was accidentally erased before Depp could hear it. According to Depp in Thompson's oral biography, this lost voicemail haunts him to this day.

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