The last words of Steve Jobs: "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."

Oct 31, 2011, 21:48 GMT

San Francisco - The sister of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs says he remained vibrant and engaged until just before his death and that the last words he uttered were 'Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.'

Novelist Mona Simpson shared the same biological parents as Jobs but unlike him was not given up at birth for adoption. She said that he called her from his death bed a day before he died and that she rushed to northern California to Los Angeles to be at his side.

Simpson posted the eulogy she gave her brother in The New York Times, two weeks after her address at a private memorial service for the iconic tech visionary.

She related how a lawyer for Jobs contacted her when she was 25 in 1985 to inform her that her long lost brother was rich and famous. During the next 27 years she said Jobs impressed her as 'an intensely emotional man' and 'always with love at the core of his effort.'

She said that he was able to speak to friends at Apple till the afternoon before his death, but then his breathing became laboured as though 'he seemed to be climbing.'

'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.'

'Steve's final words were: Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.'