Have you ever held someones hand as they died?

Yes I have. I was 15 when my Mother died in our family home.

Yes. I don't remember if I actually had his hand in mine at the very moment, but it was close. It was my husband. He had brain cancer for 2 years and 2 months. We were going to have his family over for Easter, but when it didn't look like he would make it we had them over the week before. They had been gone for an hour when he passed.

Not yet. People that have say that it is a very moving experience, one that they wouldn't trade for anything.

A friend and I were performing CPR on a neighbor when he died. We were still doing CPR when the paramedics arrived. its an eerie feeling to watch someone pass away right in front of you.

Yes, my son who had Neuroblastoma (cancer). Two weeks after his 5th birthday I was holding his hand when he stopped breathing. I don't wish that on anyone.

Not yet but I can only imagine how that feels. A person might be sitting or laying there waiting to go. They tell you their last words. They continue to breathe for a moment or two (with a little redness in their skin, body, & cheeks) and all of a sudden it stops. Their body turns cold as they turn pale or blue with no more life in them. You cry and ball your eyes out as you remember all that they've given to you, for you, and the vibrant life their personality had. You cry because there will never be another person like them. You cry because you won't be able to cope without them, and you cry because their presence is now empty in your life. It's something I have yet to experience but somehow I feel as though I've been there with the death of my father.

As a former Hospice nurse, I have held a lot of hands and stroked a lot of heads at the moment of death but I have never been there when any of my family died. My parents died quickly and unexpectedly and my grandmother died 1 hr after I left.
Sometimes the families were so loving, the patient reminded me of a loved one, or one of the children had unresolved issues with the dying parent. Those were the really hard ones when the nurse cried right along with the family.

yes, i was holding my mom's hand and hugging her as she died. even though my heart was breaking, i wouldn't trade that moment for anything.

no I missed that I walked out of my grandfathers room and My Grandmother came out saying what just happened... and I went in and saw his eyes rolled back in his head and I drifted didnt walk didnt run but found myself moving fast down the hall to the patio and hid from the fact untill they came to get me