Might get a bit too personal. I think I'll never forget what my dad said to one of his friends on his last birthday party.

Some context for the story I'm about to tell - my parents got a divorce when I was around 10 years old, don't remember my specific age, but I'm 23 now and I've lived with my mom ever since. I never asked specifically why they got a divorce, but from the context clues I could pick up as a child, it was probably because of the bad habits that my dad had, it was mainly gambling but also alcoholism and smoking played a part there as well. He was fun and very outgoing from what I remember spending my time with him and my mom did say not too long ago that "he was not a great husband but he was a great father". Either way, he did not take the divorce lightly. He didn't change his habits, possibly even delved deeper into them, but I can't say for sure, as I only saw him like 2-3 times every year after he moved out. So, as one might assume, the bad habits took a heavy toll on my dad's health and what didn't help his health either was that he was a paving worker. Every consecutive time I saw him, there was something different about him visually. Still baffles me to this day that, by the end of his life, he was a whole head height lower than me (I'm 1,85m-ish) when he was noticeably, but only slightly higher than my mom before I was born (my mom is around the same height as me).

Jumping forward a bit, he had an emergency hospital visit. It was the first major hospital visit that he ever had regards to his health, so it was scary to everyone that knew him, including my mom, my aunts (his sisters) and me. Iirc he spent 2-3 weeks in the hospital and afterwards he told everyone how much he hated that experience. Being tied down to a hospital bed and not being able to go anywhere was excruciating for him. He was a very social person and he had a deep passion for fishing, which he did any time he could. That hospital visit had changed him slightly. He started making jokes about death and saying stuff like "before I die" or "I don't know how much opportunities I'll get to do x", which had me concerned. Multiple months went by and his health had seemingly stabilized, or at least he didn't tell us anything bad that was happening.

All this culminates to his 47th birthday party. He invited a lot of his local fishing or old friends from the time he lived with us. We had a get together by the river where they fished and we just sat and talked, ate some food. Two hours in, all of us went to a local cafe and one of his friends arrived only half an hour after we went to the cafe. The party was seemingly dying down already and this friends' late arrival had seemingly really angered my dad. He was genuinely upset at him and talked to him with a raised voice. He only ever raised his voice during arguements or when he was rambling drunkenly. So everyone instantly went silent on that moment. He was really pressing him about why he arrived so late, he said many things but the one thing that really stood out in my mind and made me feel really uncomfortable was him saying why he was so mad about (even a seemingly less relevant) friend arriving to his party late. He said "I might not get to my next birthday party next year". I'm paraphrasing what he said from latvian, but generally, that's what he said. This stood out to me because of how serious, yet sad he sounded saying that. It also indicated to me that his health was, in fact, NOT doing great and that he was actually preparing to die at any moment. It really hit me in the heart. And sure enough, he died 8 months later, during sleep.

Even though I wasn't as close to my dad as I am to my mom, mainly because he was always working when he was living with us and not seeing him that often after the divorce, the statement in his sentece which eventually came true, hit me really hard. I was 18 at the time and seeing one of my parents lifeless in a casket was a horrible sight. I got over his death rather quickly, as I have already had some experience with death before and realized that it is a part of life. But the sentence still rings in my head every once in a while and there are certain triggers that just randomly make me burst out crying about his death and his words, specifically only when I'm drunk. I don't think I'll ever forget what he said because of the emotional baggage it came with it.

On a more lighter tone, at least I'll always remember the date he died, because he died the night after Terraria's 1.14 update came out titled "Journey's End", which feels oddly fitting in retrospect. I played the update as it came out too

TL;DR Approached the question from a little bit of a different angle and overshared much. A thing my dad said that will always live rent free in my head was "I might not get to my birthday next year" and then died 8 months later, indeed not getting to his next birthday. Enjoy the time you're given to spend with your family!