Why Alan Thicke’s Last Words To His Son Were Especially Poignant

Alan Thicke, the actor who will be fondly remembered for television shows like Growing Pains, passed away after suffering a heart attack on December 13, but his last words to his son reveal why he was loved so much by his family and friends.

There is an endless fascination with the last words uttered by those before they take their final breath. The writer Mark Twain once ruminated over the importance of the last words spoken before we are laid in the grave. While Twain’s last words were, “Give me my glasses,” he had his own personal view as to what constituted the proper approach to our final words before death.

“A distinguished man should be as particular about his last words as he is about his last breath. He should write them out on a slip of paper and take the judgment of his friends on them. He should never leave such a thing to the last hour of his life, and trust to an intellectual spirit at the last moment to enable him to say something smart with his latest gasp and launch into eternity with grandeur.”

When Oscar Wilde ended his days in a Parisian hotel, it is reported that he took one last long look at the wallpaper lining the walls of his room and said, “Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.”

So what were Alan Thicke’s last words? The Independent Journal Review reveals that Thicke was in the middle of an ice hockey game with his 19-year-old son, Carter, when he started to feel unwell and decided to sit down during the game.

After assuring everyone that he was absolutely fine and telling fellow players to return to their game of ice hockey, Thicke’s son Carter played it safe and made sure the paramedics were called. As Alan Thicke was being carried off on a stretcher to the ambulance, he turned to his son and jokingly asked him to snap a quick picture of the scene unfolding. “Ah, take a shot kiddo,” were the last words revealed to have been spoken by Alan Thicke as reported by Entertainment Tonight.

Read Leonardo DiCaprio’s moving reflection on his early ‘Growing Pains’ TV dad Alan Thicke https://t.co/GiiLl4xsNQ

— TIME (@TIME) December 16, 2016

Fire officials in Burbank, California, have confirmed that they received a phone call from the Pickwick Ice Rink at noon. Darin Matthewson, the Vice President of Pickwick Gardens, describes how 15 to 20 minutes into the ice hockey game he received a phone call saying that someone was down, asking him to call 911. Matthewson described how fast the emergency response was.

“In Burbank, the EMTs and the ambulance services are really fast, within a few minutes, and by the time I got out there, they were coming in.”

Darin Matthewson stated that while Alan Thicke appeared to be coherent when the paramedics arrived, he was also vomiting and revealed he was suffering from chest pains. Darin described Thicke as looking very gray.

Once Alan Thicke’s vitals were checked, he was put on a gurney, gave the thumbs-up to Matthewson, and spoke his last words to his son, Carter.

After being rushed to Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Alan Thicke, aged 69, was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The cause of death was a heart attack.

After Darin Matthewson had learned that Alan Thicke had passed away, he revealed that he wasn’t surprised that his last words were in the form of a joke.

“He always had a good one-liner after everything, Funny, good, good guy. Good man. We’re just going to miss him so much.

Alan Thicke is survived by his wife Tanya Callau and three sons Carter, Robin, and Brennan. As Alan Thicke’s last words reveal, he showed us what a happy man he was by his ability to laugh and joke right up to the end.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]