As a small introduction, I work as an RN, I've been in the health care field since I was 16 (21 now). I started work in a Nursing home as a Kitchen Aide at 16, at 17 I graduated school and obtained my CNA, I worked as a CNA until 19 when I went into Nursing School and obtained my ASN.

Over the years in Nursing homes, I've had many encounters with death. Death isn't what gets my attention, it's the behaviors of the people leading up to death that has my attention. A few examples as follows;

Resident #1
82 Male

Perfect health, no problems with gait, independent, no diagnosis
In Nursing home to be with wife who needed assistance with ADLs (Activities of Daily Living)

His wife passed away due to CHF, 6 months later, he passes away with no warning.

The following is what he did the day before he passed "I walked into his room to check on him, he told me to be quiet and not to wake her up. Being confused by the statement, I asked who was sleeping? He told me his wife came down from heaven to see him one last time before he passed and that his time was soon. He laid in his twin size bed, gently caressing what appeared to be thin air." 24 hours later, he passed away.

Resident #2
106 Female

Blind, 1 assist gait, but over all in good health, diagnosis blind, depression, slight dementia.
In Nursing home due to lack of care and poor lifestyle.

This lady amazed me, she was the strongest, most willed, and most raunchy person I've met. She could cuss you like a sailor, tell you things about sex that you never knew, and be a sweetheart. She walks really well, but with being blind we have to assist/guide her. She was a funny gal... 1 week before she passed away she told me this "Buttercup, come here! These people are digging my grave for me and I wanted to say thanks for taking care of me. They told me I had less than a month to live, and hell...it's about time." I asked her who told her that, and she claims it was Jesus who told her. (This thread is NOT intended to stir up talks on religion, just of an afterlife, whatever deity they say told them is strictly THEIR deity, not mine). Needless to say, a week later, she passed away.

Resident #3
94 Male

Diagnosis: Confusion

His story is something that puzzles me to this day...

It was last November, I was sitting at my Nurses station doing paperwork, from my seat you could see down all 3 halls of my side of the building. This man has a bright red/black plaid jacket he always wore....Well one night at around 3:30am I looked up and seen him walking down the hall, so I get up and go ask if he needs any assistance, but by the time I got down there, he went to his room. I entered his room and he laid in bed, asleep, I checked on him, he wasn't wearing that plaid jacket, it wasn't ANYWHERE to be found in his room. I walk up front and the jacket is on the coat rack, the place it had been all night. The following morning, he told me his twin brother had visited him in the middle of the night. I told him he didn't have any visitors, but he swore he did, I just chalked it up to confusion. The next day, I read through his chart and found his brother had passed 8 years prior to this. My resident told me that his brother said he would be "coming home" in a day or two. Still thinking it was confusion, I shrugged it off, 38 hours later, he passed away.

These are just 3 experiences I've had first hand, but it got me to thinking. If these people were telling the truth, is their family really coming back and escorting them to an afterlife? I know I'll never know until I go through it myself, but it really made me think.

Have any of you had any experiences like mine? Any other health care workers that have seen odd stuff like this, or seen "ghosts" or something?

Interesting storys.

Of course, none of them offer any insight as to what is going on, but its still interesting to hear about nonetheless. There may be something that happens to the body or brain when you are coming close to death that makes you manifest comfortable images and delusions to accept it...sort of like spiritual adreneline.

Alternatively, maybe it should be taken at face value and they are experiencing exactly what they are saying...whatever is most comfortable to them, thats what they get to help in their "transition".

The only thing that stands out from the rest is of course the 3rd story...why would you see the brother wandering the hall, but not the lady sleeping on the bed in story 1...was man 1 delusional and man 3 literally visited, or was this simply mistaken identity by yourself, etc.

unsolvable mysterys..well, sadly we will all know the truth one day.

My wife and our eldest daughter both worked as CNA's for a number of years. Jeanie for upwards of 7 and Courtney right out of high for a few years while she was getting her R.N. degree.

While I can't recall any instances being mentioned along the same lines as that which you stated in your opening post, there were many times when they would come home saying that so and so likely wouldn't be there when they went to work the next day.

Those similar to your 'Confused' elderly gentleman ... where they were noticeably 'going down hill' so to speak, physically and otherwise, but then they would have a day or three of Absolute Clarity.

A last day or so when they would/could recognize family and loved ones whom they'd long since been unable to. A last day or so when they could relate Very Detailed accounts about things that happened in their earliest of childhood memories and the like.

Like what a room smelled like at an aunt's house back in the early 1900s and such.
That day, way back when, when their father first took them fishing and they got a hook stuck in a finger or such.

Things that simply astounded their family and loved ones, because they too had long since forgotten such events haven taken place.

A day or less later, they were gone/had passed ... often times after months or even years of dementia, Alzheimer's, etc.

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While typing this, and now that I've thought more about it, there were a few times where one or the other would come home and convey that a given resident had 'had a visit' from an already deceased loved one or family member .... only to pass the next or few days later.

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On a side note, and somewhat along the same lines...

There was a 'term/phrase' quite common amongst the the CNAs and Nursing Staff ... 'Spring Cleaning'.

Not to be or seem morbid, but that's what they 'classed/considered' it as ....

Every Spring, after the Winter months had come and gone ... there would be a noticeable increase in resident's passings.

I dunno ... as if they were waiting to go when the tulips and spring flowers were blooming. (?) ... right around Easter time, no less. ??

I'm not a healthcare worker but I do have a story. Grandad was living in a retirement home with his lady friend, Doris. Grandad got cancer and near the end of his life was moved to a hospice. Shortly after that, Doris became ill with a heart condition and went to the hospital. Grandad passed and that day and we went to visit Doris in the hospital to tell her but she said she already knew this. She seemed distracted by something in the corner of the room. Near the end of the visit she told us to come back tomorrow because she was leaving. She told us that Grandad was in the room and waiting to take her but had promised her one more visit with us. Went back the next day,saw her, and later that evening she passed.
A couple of weeks later i'm in the laundry room doing some laundry. I'm looking for some stain remover on the shelf and I find a black and white pic. I have no idea how the pic got there, it's one i've never seen. I keep all my pics upstairs in my bedroom in photo albums and the laundry room is in the basement. The pic is of a fairly young Grandad leaning against a car in front of a little house. I'm looking at it thinking, wow this is weird, and I turn it over and there is some writing on the back. It basically says that his trip was pleasant and he's doing well.
I know this sounds like some kind of made up gobblygook but I swear it's true......
Do I believe in an afterlife?? Hell yeah!!

You're young. Write all these thuings down as they happen. You'll have quite a few anecdotes before too long, I would guess. Might make for a very interesting book. I have three instances to relate that happened to my mother.

My mother was living at the YWCA in downtown Denver. down from the mountains of Gunnison. She was in a room with several other women when a voice said, "Poor Hopes, I need my medicine." Everyone heard it. She recognized her father's voice and his pet name for her--Poor Hopes because they thought she would never be born. He was in Gunnison or Crested Butte and needed medicine, which she obtained for him. Mobody died in this event, but it was witnessed by other people.

When my Aunt Lucy passed away I visited my mother several days later. Remembering the story above I asked her, "Did anything weird happen?" Now, I know that was a leading question, but I tried to keep it as general as pssible. She said, "Oh, yes. Sister came to me in a dream and said, "I just thought I would say goodbye." the day before she died."

My mother was 75 and in a nursing home in 1989 after some sort of attack that had her hospitalized and after, unable to care for herself. Once again, I asked a leading question: "Have you heard from your father?" I asked. I just had this feeling that in her semi-conscious state she might have. She said, "Yes, he came down those stairs right over there." She gestured to the cirner of this hospital room where, of course, there were no stairs. "What did he say?" I asked. "He said he would help me any way he could."

There is no question that these things happen often. Rationalists will tell you they are hallucinations from a dying or confused, even hopeful mind that have no basis in reality. But it is difficult to explain away those instances in which there are witnesses, such as you seeing the man in the red jacket and other women hearing my grandfather.

You're in an ideal position to study this. Thank you for sharing.

I think they may have actually seen something. If you think about it, they really are the closest to the end of their lives. Maybe they had a huge fear of it (106 year old lady excluded, sounds like she scared death himself with her ways lol, I LOVE people like that), and their loved ones really did come back to let them know that passing really is "the next great adventure" to cheesily quote Albus Dumbledore.

When my Uncle passed a couple of years ago, we were all heartbroken. The world had lost a great light in our opinion. He was a HUGE joker, constantly teasing everyone, playing pranks, etc. The day after he passed, I was in the bathroom, and got to thinking about him. I started to tear up and got very sad. I swear to this day, I heard my Uncle go BOO! scare the &&&& out of me, and then start laughing. I started laughing too and felt a lot better after that.

Death is something that fascinates everyone. It's definitely the ONE thing that we all have in common. However, there's just too many NDE's and accounts of elderly and sick saying they see dead loved ones for it to be a coincidence. I think they really did see something, they are beautiful stories either way.

In 1993 My Grandmother called me at work to tell me about a weird dream she had. She was always calling me telling me weird stuff so it was not to unusual. She told me in her dream she was in a a BIG house (She expressed big) and everything was white. It was a brilliant white and everyone was dressed in white. She kept asking where she was and they would say" You're here" and that was all they would say. I thought that was quite odd and laughed with her about it. She died unexpectedly 2 days later in her sleep of a massive heart attack. I am convinced she was there, as they told her.

Great thread, stars and flags for you, and off topic, as an older nursing student studying for my RN, my hats off to you for achieving what you have at such a young age, that's awesome!

There have been a lot of great replies. I will just ad that I have witnessed death many times within my family and even my pets (won't go into the passing of pets, but, there were some very intriguing occurences there as well). With each person, they always talked about things, events or people that meant a great deal to them, a mother, father, deceased husband or wife, generally days before they passed. It is extremely comforting for them to have these experiences. Facing death is very uncomfortable for most. It's just my opinion, but, I feel that when our time to transition draws near, our loved ones that have already moved on come back and hang around us to comfort and guide us and help us make this transition. Love and caring doesn't have boundaries!

I think that the poster who suggested you keep writing all these experiences down and write a book one day was a great idea. I am sure there are other nurses out there who have experienced these same types of phenomenon but maybe don't talk about it to other staff. I would bet there are many who could relate to what you describe.

It's because our ancestors live on through us. Because we remember them, they will be there at the end.

I've been around many older people in the hospital in their final days... they definitely speak "with clarity" as another poster mentioned. It's almost metaphysical in nature; no, it is metaphysical.

Great thread. It gives me something to consider, now when I still have others that I am close to losing.

Thanks for sharing this with us. It reminds me of something I watched on tv a while back. It was about a dog that stayed in a nursing home. He would somehow know when someone would pass away. I think he was able to smell something in the people and he would hang around the person.

I am so glad you posted this!

I have been a CNA for the last 12 years, and during the majority of that time, have worked in hospice. Due to all the things I have personally witnessed when someone is close to passing, I have come to the conclusion that we do not die alone and that in fact, someone comes to help us feel more comfortable with the transition and escorts us to wherever we go after we leave here.

While I have had MANY patients tell me about loved ones coming to visit them in the days before their passing, I have had a couple of experiences that have made me almost certain that it cannot be chalked up to something that is just happening in the brain, etc.

I'll share the three that have stuck with me the most.

1- I had been taking care of a man for a few months. During that time, we established a routine and developed a friendship, as many caregivers do with the clients. Never at any time that I was caring for him, did I notice any sort of confusion or mental deficiency. One night as we went through his bedtime routine, we chatted and bs'd just the same as we had on all previous visits. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary at all. After I had helped him on to the bed and was putting the oxygen cannula in his nose, he said "Hey, I wanna ask you something." "Okay, shoot." I replied. He continued, "Who are those girls that have been here all day? They have been laughing and carrying on... I don't know who they are, but they are very sweet. Maybe my daughter knows them?"

I was caught off guard by this because he was so lucid. At no time in my caring for him prior to this moment, did I even suspect any sort of dementia or confusion. But, that is what I figured it was and decided that I would give the nurse a call in the morning to report that I had noticed this change in him. I told him I wasn't sure who the girls were because I didn't see them and that maybe they had gone just before I got there or something. As I turned out the light, I said good night and that I would see him tomorrow around the same time.

When I called the nurse the following morning to report that he seemed confused the night before, she said "Oh, didn't they call you yet?" I said "No, why?" "Oh," she said "he passed away last night. His daughter found him this morning. It appears that he had a heart attack or something in his sleep."

2-Last summer, I was assigned a to help a woman who had recently been switched from homecare to hospice due to a decline in her health. I arrived early in the morning and greeted her as I normally did. We chatted as I was gathering all the things I would need to preform her cares, while she still lay in bed. Again, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary in her mental state for the first 10 or so minutes that I was talking to her. As I went over to her dresser and started getting her clothes, she said "That's a really cute boy you have with you." This stopped me in my tracks. "I have a boy with me?" I said. "Yes, he is helping you with the clothes.He is your son." I became so excited and started asking her a bunch of questions about him, such as how old he was and what he looked like, etc. She told me that every time she looked right at him, he would move away, so she couldn't describe him. Not wanting to frustrate her, I decided to stop with the prodding questions and finish the visit.

Having learned my lessons from previous patients, I called the nurse as I left her apartment. I reported that I thought that maybe she was getting closer because she was starting the 'hallucination' phase. The nurse replied that the facility had called her that morning as well because she had been up all night, talking to her dead husband.

On my way home from work that evening, I called my mother in law to tell her that we didn't need to wait for the ultrasound next month, because the baby inside me was a boy.

I never told that patient that I was pregnant. I wore scrubs that were huge because when I got them, I wanted them to last through the entire pregnancy and so my belly wasn't visible. I'm a small woman and didn't have people actually noticing and commenting on my being pregnant until I was around 6 months along. We never spoke of my having any other children or anything like that, as my son who was born earlier this year is my first and only child.

That patient passed 2 days later.

3- This one has never set well with me and I'm still unsure what to make of it. I had been caring for a woman for about 3 months. She almost never talked to me except short answers to direct questions. She always just laid there with her eyes closed, sometimes smiling when I said something, but never really carrying on a conversation with me.

I was asked to go and see her a little later than my normal time one day because her daughter had something she needed to do and it would cut down on the time that the patient would spend alone if I went at a later time.

When I arrived, the daughter had already left and so it was just the patient and I in the home. I greeted her, got no response, and proceeded with her bed bath. About halfway through her bath, OUT OF NOWHERE, she turned her face to me and started yelling "Make him leave!!!!! Oh God, make him leave!! I cant stand him! He scares me!" "Whoa," I thought to myself. "WTF is going on here?" I tried to retain a calm exterior, (though I'm not so sure it worked), and asked "Who? Who scares you? Who is here?'' "Oh W!! Oh W! Make him leave!" she screamed as her eyes seemed to catch something on the wall behind me. I turned around just in time to see a black shadow move from the wall to the doorway and disappear.

Let me just say, that it took everything I had in me to not run out of that house screaming. I just couldn't leave this poor, helpless woman who was clearly terrified of something or somebody, alone to fend for herself. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I told it to get out of there and that it wasn't welcome. Then I prayed for us to be protected from whatever that was. When I finished my prayer, I looked up at my patient. She had her eyes closed, head forward, same as she usually was. I tapped her on the shoulder and said "Jean, is he gone? Do you feel better?' One more time, she opened, looked at me and simply replied "Yes, thank you." She went back to eyes closed, head forward. I sang whatever hymns I knew while I finished her bed bath.

Her daughter was there the next time and final time I went to that house. I told her about what had happened the previous day and she told me her father, Walter, who had been dead for 7 years, was the only person that she could think of with a name that had a W in it. We struggled to figure out why if it was him, he scared her so badly. I guess we will never know as she passed away the following weekend.

I know a lot of healthcare workers have these types of experiences and in hospice, it's so common for patients to see loved ones who have passed on shortly before they do, that we consider that a sign of impending death.

I'm not an expert in the possible scientific causes of this, nor have I heard of many other explanations. I think many of us in healthcare, and hospice especially, believe the veil thins before death.

Very interesting stories here. I have no doubt that spirits exist personally, but I always wondered if experiences like these were "real." I guess it's next to impossible for us to know.

I have never had any personal experiences with this but my ex bf years ago did and he told me about it.

He was very close with his grandfather on his dad's side. He passed away while we were together and it was hard on my bf, well one night after he had passed my bf tells me that the night before he passed his grandfather came to him and told him he would be ok and not to worry. He said they had a conversation on the patio and then he left. The next day he passed.

My mom also told me my Nana made some kind of comments before she passed as well.


I have heard this about the elderly before and another friend of mine told me recently her grandmother died two weeks after her grandfather. She was healthy but my friend said she had been with her grandfather since they were teens and she was literally heartbroken...She died from a broken heart and i believe that can happen.


Interesting stories, thanks for sharing. It must be hard sometimes seeing these people pass esp after you spend time with them. I could never do this job, I give those credit who do.

I find this absolutely fascinating, as I had never really looked into it until my own personal experience. This topic made me register in a heartbeat!

The experience I had was when my Grandmother moved into our house when I lived with my parents. She disliked nursing homes, so she lived with us in a purpose built room for her with all the facilities she needed.

At the beginning of her stay, she would enjoy watching television for most of the day. After around 8 months, she decided that she didn't even want the TV in the room anymore. We removed it and she would listen to the radio all day. After a matter of weeks, she also requested that this be removed. After that, she had around 6 months where she would just sit and stare at the wall.

She was a very old woman, and had difficulty in walking, was blind in one eye and struggled to take care of herself. At night time, when she was ready for bed, we would hear her shuffling along the hallway on her frame, and she would gently nudge the door to get attention. This was about all she was capable of doing.
About a month before her passing, we noticed that she knew things that had been discussed well away from her and that she couldn't possibly have heard, as though someone was telling her what had been said.
Eventually, she asked if something terrible had happened there. At that time, we were aware of no wrongdoing in that house, so told her no. After a couple of weeks, we finally managed to tease out of her, that she had been talking with a young woman and a little girl who sat in the corner of her room. She said that they were telling her about conversations we had away from her, which is how she always knew what had been said.

We didn't think much of this at the time, and her routine continued. She would sit looking rather sadly at the wall all day, then come and gently tap on the door with her frame at night.

One night, my Father and I had fallen asleep in the living room when I awoke to see my Grandmother briskly open the door, step away from her frame, walk over to the sofa and sit next to my Father. I watched almost in shock as she sat there smiling broadly and stroking his hair. When he awoke, he jumped and asked what was wrong. She told him that she was ready now, and wanted to be put in bed. I was still shocked by how happy she was after so many months and how suddenly capable she was.
Apparently my Father laid her in bed as she was still smiling, she held his hand, told him thank you for everything and she was ready to go now.

Of course, when you are tired and used to this routine, it's easy to miss these little signs, but he tucked her in bed and walked out as she was still grinning and waving at him. The next morning, we found that she had passed away during the night.

That final night really did quite frighten me at the time, but after thinking about it all, I soon saw it as a happy memory. It was very comforting to see that she was so happy and relaxed, and she seemed excited to move on. I would like to think this is common, but have heard very little about the subject before.

I too, think it would be an excellent idea to write a book containing all your experiences after a few years on the job. It would certainly be unique enough to stand out among the others!

My mother has worked in a nursing home her whole career (30+ years). While she is administration, she walks around and says hi to the residence who live there. This happened this year while my mom went to walk past a resident who had a visitor. My mother recognized her and said "good morning Mrs. ______" and continued on her way. She went back to her desk to tell her boss she'd seen Mr. _____ 's wife come in and he told her that she had passed away the day before. When my mother went back to visit, she was gone, and her husband passed that night.

My mom could never explain it.