Choosing When to Die

The end of life is obviously a major event for each individual. With the exception of deliberate suicide, people usually believe that they have no control over when they die. Information on dates of death with special significance suggests some people choose a special day or group of days for the end of life. Most of these choices are probably not accessible to their conscious awareness.

Some famous people have died on a date that has special significance for them. A single occurrence can easily be attributable to random chance because of the large number of people and multiple significant dates for each. Three early presidents of the United States died on July 4, in the round number of either 50 or 55 years after the American Declaration of Independence, on July 4, 1776. They were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who died in 1826, and James Monroe, who died in 1831.

Winston Churchill, while 90 years old and after 12 days in a coma, following a severe stroke, died on January 24, the 70^th anniversary of his father’s death. Franklin D. Roosevelt had a superstitious aversion to major trips or other initiatives on Friday the 13^th. His sudden death, on April 12, was the day before Friday the 13^th, 1945.

Some people might choose a final group of days or even a final year. Bobby Fischer, former chess champion of the world, died of kidney failure in 2008 at the age of 64 years, corresponding to the number of squares on a chessboard. This could easily have been due to random chance. However, two of the earliest chess champions of the world also died at the age of 64 years: Howard Staunton in 1874 and William Steinitz in 1900.

More convincing evidence for choices of final days of life is available on 3,484 husbands and wives. I recorded their dates of birth, marriage, and death from 25 genealogical books. My records were limited to couples for whom there was no report of divorce or other marriage.

In agreement with previously published reports on other samples of individuals, more husbands and wives died within a week after instead of within a week before their birthday. The difference in number of deaths is small but was statistically significant when combining both husbands and wives.

A larger difference in number of deaths is that more wives died a week before instead of a week after February 14. The majority were widows and older than the age of 70 years. Many were chronically ill. A desire of some wives, probably inaccessible to their conscious awareness, might have been avoidance of the approaching Valentine’s Day. This desire was apparently not shared by their husbands. Most of the husbands probably felt less significance of Valentine’s Day. The husbands more often died suddenly and unexpectedly, while their wife was alive.

Another large difference in number of deaths is that more husbands died in the same month as their marriage instead of in the preceding or following month. A desire of some husbands, probably inaccessible to their conscious awareness, might have been for their final days of life to be in the same month as their marriage. This difference

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in number of deaths is not attributable to a higher frequency of both marriages and deaths in the same month. Marriages were most frequent after the harvest, in October and December. Deaths of husbands were most frequent in late winter, February and March.

Permanent physiological failure, which can occur on any date, is the most obvious and immediate cause of deaths. A special significance of certain dates can influence when this ultimate bodily collapse occurs.

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