This is a story I heard from my boss at work, Mr. S.

Mr. S's mother had been suffering from a serious illness and was hospitalized for a long time. Eventually, her level of consciousness dropped and she slipped into a coma. Her condition deteriorated to the point where she could pass away at any moment, and her doctor warned him to prepare for the worst. Mr. S booked a room at a hotel right near the hospital so he could rush to her side at a moment's notice.

That night, Mr. S had a dream. He was driving with his mother in the passenger seat. They drove through places he barely recognized, interspersed with familiar neighborhoods where various relatives lived. "Go straight here," "Take a right up there," "Ah, it's the third corner over there," she would direct from the passenger seat, and he would follow her instructions.

"Oh, pull over here," she would say. Whenever he stopped, they were parked in front of a house, an apartment building, or a housing complex.

"Wait here for just a second," she'd tell him before getting out. If it was a single-family house, she'd ring the doorbell; if it was an apartment building or complex, she'd head inside, returning a short while later.

"Okay, now head out to that main street over there," she would say, and he'd drive as told. They repeated this over and over.

"Mom, how long are we gonna keep doing this?" Mr. S asked. "The next one will be the last," she replied with a warm smile.

He said her smile was so gentle and sweet—it was just such a wonderful smile.

"Stop here." Where they pulled over was right outside the hotel where Mr. S was staying.

Puzzled, Mr. S wondered why they were there, but his mother stepped out of the car and started walking toward the hotel. Halfway there, she turned around, waved, and said, "Well then, thank you for everything."

At that moment, Mr. S woke up. Right then, his phone rang—it was the hospital calling to say his mother's condition had taken a sudden turn for the worse.

He rushed over immediately. His mother was unconscious, but she was still breathing. Just a few minutes after he arrived at her bedside, she took her final breath. It was right before sunrise.

Later, at the wake and funeral service, relatives and friends of his mother all said the exact same thing: "She visited me in a dream, had a lovely chat, and then said goodbye."

All of these dreams happened on the very morning she passed away. Was she making her rounds, saying her final goodbyes to the people she cared about?

"I'm sure it was just a coincidence," Mr. S said with a distant look in his eyes and a faint smile, "but Mom was always so meticulous about things. In a way, it was just like her."