Now this is a goldmine of inspiration and so I'll lead with a couple of short articles to introduce you to the concept.
#1 - Deathbed Visitations - The NY Times
#2 - Reader Submitted Stories on Deathbed Visitations - NY Times
Now this is a common thing, as many Nurses, Doctors and Hospice Workers will attest - and is considered a sure-fire signal that somebody is close or ready to dying. And there are an abundance of threads on reddit dealing with this same topic:
#3 - https://www.reddit.com/r/hospice/comments/1828jii/on_deathbed_visions/
#4 - https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/uxrpod/do_the_dying_always_see_ghosts_of_loved_ones/
#5 - https://www.reddit.com/r/NDE/comments/17ksnpf/deathbed_visions_evidence_for_their_reality/
#6 - https://www.reddit.com/r/DeathBedVisions/
#7 - https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/sqhcco/nurses_of_reddit_what_where_the_most_haunting/
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Now this is absolutely fascinating, the universality of the stories, cross-cultural, and the fact that visitors overwhelming are people near and dear to the dying and have predeceased them. Then there are the people dying who simply announce they're preparing for a trip. Stories of people being visited by pets, angels, what have you - and while many might write these off as "hallucinations" due to oxygen deprivation, or the brain breaking down, or the effects of dementia, Alzheimer's, it simply doesn't add up. Too many of the dying had no knowledge that they were predeceased by Aunt Marge, or so-and-so, and it argues against the terminal lucidity many patients experience before death, and - frankly, it's a cheap and easy "explanation" that in reality explains nothing, merely comforts those who prefer to remain "Scientific", while throwing their so-called science in their face.
Now what I find most interesting in this (well, 'most' is a bit strong, it's all pretty fascinating) is that many cultures have built up traditions - a series of steps that must be gone through in death (as in life, think of Catholicism & the 7 Sacraments), traditions codified in the Bardo Thodol, or The Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Thinking logically, which in no ways is going to maneuver this minefield, one has to marvel at those experiences reported by those who've come back from the dead. First - the descriptions, of people, imaginary (Jesus on the Golfcart welcoming them to the 19th hole) and real (Aunt Marge, Parents, Children, etc). That they can report on this, as more real than real, while - technically, "scientifically" everything they experience on the "other side" - presuming that there is one - should be in point of fact be very much different that what they experienced on this side. Vision - eyes closed - none. Hearing - dead, taste, dead, and so on down the line. All experience in this world is in some ways bound up with our physical being.
And - obvious to everyone - why do the people so often appear to the dying as they knew them in life?
From this I'd conclude that a good many of these experiences, or all of them, are simply the 'dead' - or some agent of the dead, a psychopomp, if you will, coming to help someone transition or grow into their next sphere of existence. Perhaps this then is the meaning of life, to attenuate our senses to the various physical realms, then evolving into the next one. In any event, something to consider.
Now this is just a beginning in the fascinating field of post-mortem psychology and spirituality, and one in which we're all going to sooner or later come to our own conclusions, but - well, it doesn't hurt to ponder the possibilities.