Radio Host Stuns With Live Tweets of His Mother's Dying Moments

Scott Simon, host of NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday," is sharing very personal and tragic moments with the world. Over the past few days, the journalist has been live-tweeting his mother's final moments. As Patricia Lyons Simon Newman Gilband lay dying in an intensive care unit at a Chicago-area hospital, Simon is sharing both her experience -- and his own -- on Twitter.

In documenting these events, he is sharing the wide-range of emotions and experiences that come at the end of one's life. Uniquely, the journalist has opened the door to an intensely-private tragedy and is allowing the world in to see what continues to unfold in his mother's hospital room.

From touching to comical, his messages are both real and poignant.

"I just realized: she once had to let me go into the big wide world. Now I have to let her go the same way," Simon wrote on Sunday.

This was followed up with a more light-hearted tweet about his mother's dental floss: "Just spent 45 mins looking for mother' favorite dental floss. Waste of time? Act of faith."

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/nprscottsimon/status/361468328633581568"]

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/nprscottsimon/status/361507418305343490"]

Collectively, the tweets not only provide a lens into Simon's personal experience, but they also force his more than 1.2 million followers to consider the highly-emotional human experience that comes with death and dying.

"Breathing hard now. She sleeps, opens eyes a minute, sleeps. I sing, 'I'll always be there, as frightened as you,' to her," he wrote on Sunday.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/nprscottsimon/status/361619584991756288"]

As Simon reflects and shares his experiences, he is faced with a goodbye that will come all-too-soon. Throughout the night on Sunday, he provided a number of additional tweets that showcase the intensity of the situation.

From commenting about oxygen masks to his mother's calls for help, Simon held little back.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/nprscottsimon/status/361715050009997312"]

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/nprscottsimon/status/361716002561601536"]

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/nprscottsimon/status/361797089170161665"]

Read the journalist's entire Twitter feed, which documents the ongoing experience.

--

Other Must-Read Stories:

• The 5 Most Awkward Moments During Journalist’s Contentious Interview With Muslim Author Behind Jesus Book
• Zimmerman’s Brother Opens Up to TheBlaze: George Was Made Into a ‘Mythological Monster’
• Fact Check: Does the Bible Really Support Rape and Polygamy? TheBlaze Explores Atheists’ Critiques
• Pope Francis on Gay Priests Who ‘Search for the Lord’: ‘Who Am I to Judge?’
• Radio Host Stuns With Live Tweets of His Mother’s Dying Moments