The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments

by Hadley Vlahos

“Excited. I can’t wait to be with my husband. He’s right beside you,”

“No, he’s here to get me. I finally get to be with him again,”

How did Edith know my name—let alone say it—when she was that deep in her diagnosis, long after she had lost the cognitive ability to form new memories?

“How does forever work when one person is dead?”

‘What we once deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.’

I have cared for enough end-of-life patients with varying religious backgrounds to believe that how you live your life is more important than what you believe in.

I’ve seen just as many patients who aren’t religious and don’t believe in an afterlife have end-of-life visitations from loved ones as I have those who do believe in a life after this one.

I do believe that our loved ones come to get us when we pass, and I don’t believe that’s the result of a chemical reaction in our brain in those final hours.

While hallucinations can be anything from spiders on the wall to the house morphing around you, visitations are lucid and matter-of-fact to the patient who’s describing them. While hallucinations can incite anxiety or fear, visitations bring with them a sense of calm and peace.