NPR host Scott Simon touched the hearts of millions this week by tweeting messages of love for his mother during her final days. Some thought the experience too personal to share on Twitter, but many more were moved by the tribute to his mom before she passed away last Monday at the age of 84. In an interview for "This Week," Simon explained it as a way of "honoring her."

"I just thought there was something in there that needed to be shared," Simon told ABC News' Martha Raddatz. "I would sit there at her bedside, I would hold her hand, things would occur to me. And it was also a way of me taking notes. It was also a way of me keeping this experience."

"Dying is really the one universal experience. It's something we're all going to have," added Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday.

Some of Simon's tweets were heart-wrenching, while others added humor to a difficult conversation with his mother, Patricia Lyons Simon Newman, who was a former showgirl and model.

"She looked at me at one point and said, 'Darling, I tell you, those great deathbed speeches, they all had to be written in advance.' It was just utterly hilarious," Simon said.

Simon, who has over one million followers on Twitter, said all of the tweets served as "a way of getting through" a difficult experience.

"My mother was giving me one last great performance. She was making it easier for us to live with what was coming," Simon said.

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See a list of some of Simon's tweets below.

http://sfy.co/jP3b