Duane “Dog” Chapman spoke out in the first interview with Hawaii Now after his wife Beth Chapman passed away on June 26.
During the interview, the reporter asked Chapman what his wife’s last words were.
After a long pause, he recalled the moment she had the attack.
“When she had an attack I didn’t know anything to do but say ‘in Jesus name’ and hold her.”
“And when I said ‘in Jesus name’ she said ‘say it again, say it more.'”
Despite coming in and out of consciousness, she showed concern for her family members all around her.
“And then she, you know, told the girls and everybody with her mouth and stuff, she came out of it a couple of times, ‘I love you, are you guys okay? don’t worry.'”
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‘This is a Test of my Faith’
The reporter then inquired about Beth approaching her fight with cancer “her way.”
“Oh yeah, she did it her way,” he said. “It’s completely her way, I mean her way was to live, she wanted to live so bad, and she fought so long.”
Chapman said his wife fought for her life because “she liked life,” but it wasn’t the only reason.
“She wanted to show people how to beat it and what to do when it got her,” he said.
Aside from her battle with cancer, there was another battle she fought on the inside.
“One of the last things she said [was] ‘It’s a test of my faith.’ She had faith and that was it,” he added.
Chapman made a reference to the stages of death and in the last stage a person accepts death, but in his words, “she never accepted it.”
“She said to me the other day, ‘honey, that last step, I ain’t taking…’ So go Bethy,” he said.
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‘What Would Jesus do?’
Chapman described a moment in the bedroom that led him to realize that she was gone for good.
“It’s just incredible when you walk alone in the bedroom and you’re there and she was just there two days ago,” he said.
Recalling that moment led him to talk about the importance of God in his life and trying to make good decisions by asking a simple question.
“I hope to God there’s a God,” Chapman said. “I have trained myself [by asking] ‘what would Jesus do?’ And I hope I’m not just talking to myself. I hope there is a God and if there is I want to see my honey again.”
“And that’s all we can do, is hope.”
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No One Expected It
Family members knew that the day of her passing would eventually come, but not as soon as they expected.
“It came really unexpected, really fast,” he said.
“We didn’t even … all of her clothes are exactly where they were, her makeup, everything,” Chapman said.
Chapman sent out a tweet on June 26 that announced the death of his wife. She passed away at 5:34 a.m. in Hawaii, according to him.
“It’s 5:32 in Hawaii,” he said. “This is the time she would wake up to go hike Koko Head mountain. Only today, she hiked the stairway to Heaven. We all love you, Beth.”
“See you on the other side.”
It’s 5:32 in Hawaii, this is the time she would wake up to go hike Koko Head mountain. Only today, she hiked the stairway to heaven. We all love you, Beth. See you on the other side.
— Duane Dog Chapman (@DogBountyHunter) June 26, 2019
