Mona Simpson Reveals Steve Jobs’ Final Words in Eulogy

In a compassionate eulogy for her brother, writer Mona Simpson revealed the final words of Steve Jobs and painted a picture of the night he died.

Steve's final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times, Simpson wrote. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.

The heartfelt eulogy was read on Oct. 16 during a service at Stanford University, but was published in the Op Ed section of The New York Times on Sunday.

Mona Simpson, an author and full biological sister of the Apple co-founder, remembered meeting her estranged brother when she was 25 years old living in New York and working for a literary magazine.

My whole life I'd been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I'd thought that man would be my father, Simpson said. When I was 25, I met that man and he was my brother.

Simpson, who took her stepfather's last name when their mother remarried, came in contact with her brother Jobs, who was adopted at birth, after a lawyer told her that she had a rich brother.

Grateful for meeting her successful brother and garnering a meaningful relationship, Simpson noted that Jobs worked up until the day he died of respiratory arrest from a long battle with pancreatic cancer on Oct. 5.

Death didn't happen to Steve, he achieved it, she said. Steve worked at what he loved. He worked really hard. Every day. That's incredibly simple, but true.

Simpson also took the time to poke a bit of sibling fun at her brother and his fashion sense in the eulogy.

If he loved a shirt, he'd order 10 or 100 of them, Simpson said. In the Palo Alto house, there are probably enough black cotton turtlenecks for everyone in this church.

Simpson, who is today a novelist and a professor at University of California, painted a picture of Jobs' final moments before passing.

Before embarking, he'd looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life's partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them, she said. Steve's final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.