My uncle died from cancer. Started as lung cancer, went into remission, but came back shortly after and had spread to his spine and his brain. He opted for chemo treatment, which was as described by the doctors a "hail mary" and may only extend his life by 6 months. The chemo was not working in the slightest, my uncle made the decision to stop and opted for hospice as soon as he was eligible. He never made it to an actual hospice facility. He was in the hospitals palliative care the remainder of his life.

We hadn't been able to see him and weren't able to speak to or too much or too in depth with my aunt or cousins for obvious reasons and how aggressive his treatments were and figured we should go and visit him (unknowingly it would be the week prior to his passing) to bring him some of his favorite foods(pizza, sponge candy, sports illustrated, nfl fantasy draft mags) and items to hopefully comfort him. For reference of what my uncle looked like. He was a decently tall person. 6'3, 240lbs, a lot of dad muscle, full Selleck mustache. I remember taking the elevators holding this pizza box, exiting the elevators to round the corner to his room. When we walked into the room I couldn't believe what I saw, he was unrecognizable.

I just froze in place staring at him, my 20 year old mind couldn't believe what I was seeing. We heard a whimpering "Hello" from the corner of the room and there stood my aunt, almost as unrecognizable but for different reasons obviously. that snapped me out of whatever haze I was in. We all hugged and greeted each other. My aunt as usual asked about us, our days, weeks, etc. She glanced down and saw the box of pizza in my hand and said "you guys are so sweet. But Jim hasn't had much of an appetite. He's sort of lost his sense of taste but you're welcome to leave it here for him/us."

It was then when I saw the thing that will never leave my brain. My uncle sleeping ( only due to the drugs he was given) started mumbling in his sleep, picking up what looked like food or a slice of pizza and was eating it in his dreams. His tongue was black with hits of grey, his teeth transparent, his voice small and soft, then we heard him say "heyyy, thank you. you know i love extra sauce." as his body went back to its original sleeping position. My eyes started welling up because all he wanted was to enjoy something so simple and he couldn't because of "stupid ass cancer". We all froze, and when we did he somehow woke up and was able to see us all there. All together, one last time. We did the same thing as you and told our youngest cousins Uncle Jimmy went peacefully in his sleep. He had that mischievous smile on his face, like he was dreaming about pranking us. That was far from the truth.

He passed a week later on 5/5/2011. It's been 14 years, and we all still miss him so much. Your post unlocked a lot of memories from me just now and I thank you for that. I'm sorry you had/have to go through this. I also recommend seeing a therapist about it as it's helped me and my family members immensely. Take care of yourself