I have heard many times where a dying person has "held out" until they saw or talked to those who were important to them. How can this be?

They fight with everything they have left to keep going to see that person, but after they’ve been with them they can relax and let go. Some people are real fighters.

A good portion of the people that I know where in a coma before death. My Mom included. I wonder if they were aware of what was going on?

@Mama_Cakes There are different levels of a coma, sometimes the person feels or senses what’s going on around them.

Possibly. Hearing is the last sense to go when people are anaesthetised.

My parents were living overseas and my 97 yr old grandfather was in a nursing home when he started to decline and say he had little to live for. But my mother (his only child) wasn’t going to be in the US for another five months. He held on fine until she came to the US and visited him everyday for a week, and then they had a long and private hug goodbye.

My mom left the next day for Arabia, and three days later my grandfather started a high fever that lasted a week and then he died. It was plain as day that he lasted until he could say goodbye to his daughter, and then let go.

When my dad was in his last minutes of life from his advanced colon cancer it seemed like he wasn’t aware of us, but he kept hanging on. The hospice nurse (who was great) said that she sees many of these cases daily, and told my mom to tell him it is ok to move on. Ironically, when she said this he passed away right after that moment, and with a smile on his face.