Steve Jobs’s final moments

last updated 8 January 2015

Mona Simpson

The New York Times

Steve Jobs died just as he lived, said his sister, Mona Simpson. My brother spent his final months embarking on new projects at Apple that he asked colleagues to finish, designing what he hoped would be the most beautiful yacht in the world, and relishing his time with his wife and four children. When he knew he was fading, he called me, telling me to get to his home in Palo Alto that day. “I’m afraid you won’t make it on time, honey,” he said. When I arrived, he and his wife, Laurene, were talking and joking, and the kids were gathered around him. Then Steve’s breathing changed, becoming “severe, deliberate, purposeful,” and it was clear he was on “an arduous journey, some steep path. He seemed to be climbing.” He was working at dying, just as he’d worked so hard at living. Just before he closed his eyes for the last time, the man who spent his life in search of beauty looked past those of us at his bedside at something only he could see. “Steve’s last words were: “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.’’