Call me back!

"My grandma went a little loopy before she went, but she left a vm for her best friend in the last days along the lines of 'Maggie, it's Deborah. I'm dying, and it's a lot of fun! Call me back!' " said buddynach0.

"This is by far the greatest thing on this thread, possibly the greatest thing ever. Thank you for sharing!" wrote pods_and_cigarettes.

Completely alone

"I was a health care aide on a geriatric ward when a woman so old and frail she looked dead already motioned to me to come to her. I put my ear next to her mouth and she quietly said, 'I just wanted to say 'goodbye' to someone.' It broke my heart. She died a few days later," said jacobtwo-two.

User Caf-fiend responded that her mother died alone in the middle of the night in a hospital room after being in and out of the hospital for four years. She admitted that she hadn't made time to see her mother during this stay and still regrets it. "I hope she was able to have a nice conversation with somebody, or squeeze a hand before she went. We weren't very close in the end, but the thought of her being all alone tears me up inside."

Please forgive me

"A call had come out of a shooting that had just occurred. It was in a neighboring division, but we were close so we decided to go," said CopWithoutVest. "We were the first unit and there is a guy, shot right in the forehead walking back and forth. He is on his cell phone screaming and crying and asking his mother to please forgive him for everything he has done because he got shot and was going to die." He posted later that he never found out whether the man died.

Loved his family

"My grandfather who had been married for 42 years and had 4 children and was on his death bed from lung cancer told me he was gay when I was 16. He loved his family," said baconand**ts.

User RagingCacti responded, "I'm not sure if I feel happy for him living a long, fulfilling life with a family he loved; or feel sorry for him, for having to live a life never telling anyone until the very bitter end."

The original poster wrote, "I think he loved his wife as his closest friend, I never knew if she knew or not. I know he loved his kids to death. I respect him greatly."

Living for two

User fatesarchitect said this thread prompted her to register for Reddit to post her story of a 24-year-old cousin who died after two double lung transplants and a long struggle with cystic fibrosis. She said the only spot not bruised or covered with tubes was on her cousin's cheek, and so she rubbed that spot and told stories about travel to Africa and Scotland.

"I'll do everything for you," fatesarchitect said. "It's okay."

"She opened her eyes and smiled at me, and then closed them again. It was the last time I saw her awake and alive. She died a few days later; she got the second transplant, and never woke up.

She loved butterflies, and since she died, I've had them land on me with strange regularity all over the world. She's going with me because I'm living for both of us, or so I'm going to keep telling myself."

"Dammit all," wrote DarkWolfLove. "I have CF as well. And hopefully you don't hate me too much for this, but I don't take care of myself as much as I should. I have it pretty good for such a disease, but I still feel shameful reading this, and knowing other girls who have died young. I'm sorry you lost such a cool person so early. I'm also sorry I take my own life for granted."

Apology accepted

An elderly man living in a predominantly white area was brought into a medical facility where Anjolifwr, who describes himself as a "non-white person," was studying. It was his first patient.