The last comments of Apple's much-admired and quoted co-founder Steve Jobs were made public around a month after his death at 56 years old.
Famously calling death "perhaps the greatest invention of existence," Jobs left this world with a last glance at his family and the enigmatic remark, "Oh wow." That is just incredible. Unbelievable.
The New York Times has access to his sister Mona Simpson's perspectives into his last hours through her eulogy delivered at his memorial service on October 16. She describes how she raced to Jobs' side when he begged for her presence immediately.
"His voice was warm, tender, loving, like someone whose bags were already packed for a journey, who was already embarking on his voyage, even as he expressed deep, genuine regret for leaving us," she adds.
When she arrived, Jobs was encircled by his family and fighting to remain conscious as "his gaze was locked onto his children's eyes."
Things, though, started to become worse. Changes in breathing. Things turned serious and intentional. Measuring his steps once more, he was walking more than before. It seems to me that he was working for this as well. It was not something that happened to Steve; he attained death.
Simpson added that after her brother survived one last night, he started to fade away. His breath told of a strenuous trek on a high-altitude trail. Looked like he was rising.
"But with that commitment, that work ethic, that perseverance, there was also the soft side of Steve's sense of wonder, the artist's belief in the ideal, the expectation of an even more beautiful future.
The last things Steve said, hours earlier, were single syllables repeated three times.
His eyes initially went to his sister Patty, then he spent a long time staring at his children, Laurene, his life partner, and finally beyond their shoulders.
'Oh wow,' Steve remarked to sum up. And whoa. Unbelievable.
Novelist and English professor Simpson used the eulogy as well to honor some of her late brother's peculiarities and convictions.
"Innovation was not Steve's top priority," she says. Beautiful was. For a pioneer, Steve was shockingly submissive. If he liked a clothing, he would buy 10 or perhaps a hundred. Probably enough black cotton turtlenecks are available for everyone in this Palo Alto get-together.
Even if it is hard to say exactly what Jobs intended, his last remarks will undoubtedly spark interest in a man who enthralls the corporate and creative worlds long after his passing.
Walter Isaacson's biography is at the top of several book lists and may perhaps become the best-selling book on Amazon this year.
But the company's newest product, the iPhone 4S, isn't doing as well; multiple users have complained about their new devices' fast battery drain.