After standing at the edge of nearly 100 final breaths, a hospice nurse is sharing the last words spoken by the dying – words that reveal more about life than death.
Known widely as “Hospice Nurse Julie,” Julie McFadden has become an online sensation, amassing millions of followers on social media, where she shares raw, unfiltered stories about the dying process and what it teaches us about living.
“Talking about death, thinking about your own mortality, to me, really helps you live better, live more meaningful[ly], and I think that helps you die more peacefully,” McFadden, 42, told CNBC in a November 2024 interview.
McFadden’s popularity led to the release of her bestselling book “Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully,” where she not only shares clinical knowledge, but the emotional and existential wisdom passed on by those she’s cared for.
But it’s in her interviews and online posts where she exposes the hauntingly honest reflections of those at the brink of death.
‘How well they felt before’
In a 2024 appearance on Rob Moore’s podcast Disruptors, McFadden spoke about the recurring themes that emerge in conversations with patients in their final hours.
She revealed that the most common, and often heartbreaking, things people say as they face death aren’t poetic goodbyes or grand epiphanies.
They’re grounded in simplicity, regret, and the things left unsaid or undone.
“The main thing people say, that I don’t hear a lot of people mention, is ‘I wish I would have appreciated my health,’” McFadden told Moore, per the New York Post. “I think the biggest thing I hear from people [who are] dying is that they wish they would have appreciated how well they felt before.”
Appreciate the little things
Another of the most frequently voiced themes is time lost to work.
“Some of us have to work all the time just because of the world we live in,” McFadden told CNBC. “But I think you can still live a fulfilled life if you can, on a daily basis, live in gratitude for the little things.”
The nurse, who has more than 17 years experience, says this regret often comes from people who spent much of their lives stressed, working, or preoccupied, never fully present in the physical experience of being alive.
Still, McFadden points out that even with those obligations, the desire for more time with loved ones outweighs the value of missed promotions or overtime pay. As she’s heard repeatedly, no one ever wishes they spent more time in meetings or answering emails.
Let go and experience joy
Over time, McFadden noticed a pattern – people of all ages, beliefs, and backgrounds often repeated the same sentiments as the end approached. Alongside appreciation for health and wishing they hadn’t worked as much, many also expressed a desire to have “let go” of resentment and fear more easily.
The last is that several people wished they had pursued joy unapologetically and loved more freely.
‘Biologically built to die’
McFadden explained that unfortunately, many people realize far too late how miraculous life really is: being able to breathe, walk, wake, or to feel the warmth of sunlight on skin.
“I like the fact that I can breathe, I’m walking around, I can feel the sunshine – little things like that,” she said of being grounded in life.
“I think because of my job, it’s easier for me to see how once-in-a-lifetime this is,” she told Moore. “The fact that everything works together in our bodies to make us live and grow…and I see that in death too. I see how our bodies are biologically built to die.”
‘Going to happen to all of us’
But perhaps McFadden’s most important message is not about what we should fear, but what we should understand. She’s spent years attempting to normalize the dying process, believing deeply that death should not be shrouded in fear and mystery.
“What I’ve found is even people who are willing to talk about [death], even in a way of, ‘I’m afraid. I don’t want to. I don’t want to think about this’ – there’s something about even just saying that out loud that will loosen the fear that’s gripped around the topic,” McFadden told ABC’s Good Morning America. “I think we need to start reframing how we look at death and dying, because it’s going to happen to all of us.”
McFadden’s work is not about inducing fear – it’s about guiding people through a chapter of life that is both universal and terrifying because it’s unknown. As she says on her Facebook page, she’s “turning death from scary to sacred through education.”
How are you living better to minimize the regrets that you might have on your deathbed? Please let us know what you think and then share this story so we can get the conversation going!
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