A Mom’s Message To Her Daughter 2 Weeks Before She Died Changed Everything – ‘I Wish I Could Go Back’
It's something we can all learn from.
Rido | Shutterstock Few things are more painful than losing a loved one. Losing a parent you’re close to can be particularly difficult. This is true for TikTok fitness influencer Lindsey Mutchler, who lost her beloved mother to bone marrow cancer in 2019. In a video that has nearly 80,000 views, she shared something very special her mom told her shortly before she passed.
Lindsey Mutchler’s mother shared a touching message with her just weeks before she died.
“Two weeks before my mom passed away, she said something to me that literally shook me to my core, and it has been a driving force ever since she said this to me,” Mutchler said with emotion in her voice.
Mutchler’s mom was at her house, resting during a time of needing heavy medication for the excruciating pain she was in. All of a sudden, she began crying. Mutchler was concerned the tears were from the pain she was experiencing, but they were for an entirely different reason. Mutchler stated, “She looked at me with just tears running down her face and she said, ‘There’s so many things I wish I would have done.’”
Mutchler was initially confused. She thought her mother had lived a very full and fulfilling life. She reminded her of this, telling her, “Mom, no. You did a lot of things.” Mutchler’s mother was a wife and mom of six who lived a wonderful life. But in that moment, that wasn’t what she was focused on.
“No, no, no. There’s so many things I wish I would have done,” she told her daughter. “There’s so much time that I know that I wasted that I wish I wouldn’t have wasted.”
Mutchler was surprised to hear this from her mom, calling it “one of the hardest things I ever had to hear her say.” But, the more she thought about it, the more the message hit home for her. “She knew she was actually leaving this earth [and] that’s the thing that came to her mind,” Mutchler said, emphasizing the gravity of the situation and of her mom’s words.
Her mother's poignant advice isn't far from the sentiment of many facing mortality.
Palliative Care expert Bronnie Ware revealed that the five biggest regrets of the dying are:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I'd let myself be happier.
The heartbreak didn’t end there for Mutchler.
In 2019, Mutchler said she thought “it couldn’t get any worse” after losing her mother to her battle with cancer. Unfortunately, it did. Just two years after the death of her mother, Mutchler lost two of her brothers, James and Scott, only five months apart.
“It’s a nightmare that I would never wish on anyone,” she said. “Cherish every single second with the people you love. It’s never enough.”
Although Mutchler has faced so much sadness in her life, it has taught her many important lessons that she now shares with her followers. “Life is short, and we don’t know how much time we have,” she said. “The sad thing is that for so many people … they won’t even realize what time they’re wasting or the life that they’re not living until it’s too late.”
Mutchler encourages everyone to follow their dreams and do the big things that scare them.
She shared, “As scary as taking big chances [is], as scary as changing life is, there is nothing scarier than literally getting to that point and having to look back and realize that you didn’t take chances, you didn’t make the changes you wanted to.”
To her, nothing could be worse than reaching the end of your life and realizing you have regrets — that you didn’t go after the things you truly wanted. “Don’t let that happen to you,” she advises.
After sharing this priceless moment with her mom, Mutchler is now making sure everyone hears this important message. But at the end of the day, it's up to us to heed the advice of those sharing their sage end-of-life advice. It's easy to say "live each day like it's your last," but it takes courage and determination to actually do it.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment and news.