Tag Archives: dying

10 Strange Death Statistics

killed by hippo

1. Texting while driving kills 6,000 annually in the U.S. alone
2. Hippos kill 2,900 people annually in Africa
3. Autoerotic Asphyxiation Kills 600 people annually
4. Falling out of bed kills 450 people annually in the U.S.
5. Icicles kill 100 people per year in Russia
6. Jellyfish kill 20-40 people per year in the Philippines alone
7. Dogs kill 34 people per year in the U.S.
8. Ants kill 30 people per year
9. Vending machines kill 13 people per year
10. Roller Coasters kill 4 people per year

Stat sources

Gone From My Sight

by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone”

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me — not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, she is gone,”
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”

And that is dying…

Death comes in its own time, in its own way.
Death is as unique as the individual experiencing it.

Val Patterson, Obituary

Val “Rocky” Patterson Obituary
Val “Rocky” Patterson of Salt Lake City, Utah died last week of throat cancer at 59. The man whose motto was “anything for a laugh” has achieved post-mortem celebrity for the confessional obituary he left behind:

Now that I have gone to my reward, I have confessions and things I should now say. As it turns out, I AM the guy who stole the safe from the Motor View Drive Inn back in June, 1971. I could have left that unsaid, but I wanted to get it off my chest. Also, I really am NOT a PhD. What happened was that the day I went to pay off my college student loan at the U of U, the girl working there put my receipt into the wrong stack, and two weeks later, a PhD diploma came in the mail. I didn’t even graduate, I only had about 3 years of college credit. In fact, I never did even learn what the letters “PhD” even stood for. For all of the Electronic Engineers I have worked with, I’m sorry, but you have to admit my designs always worked very well, and were well engineered, and I always made you laugh at work. Now to that really mean Park Ranger; after all, it was me that rolled those rocks into your geyser and ruined it. I did notice a few years later that you did get Old Faithful working again. To Disneyland – you can now throw away that “Banned for Life” file you have on me, I’m not a problem anymore – and SeaWorld San Diego, too, if you read this.

Read the full version here.
(via)

To Heaven and Back

This video is a short preview of the book entitled “To Heaven and Back” by Mary C. Neal, MD, which chronicles her NDE (near death experience) after drowning while kayaking on a South American river. What do you think about her story?

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/455275/1652395&tbid=1641&p=1272&height=384&width=320]
(via)