For what it's worth, my mother was in the hospital and dying. A priest had said last rites, my brother and I were allowed to visit to sat good-bye (minor children weren't allowed otherwise at the time) and I was too young to really understand what was happening. My mother begged my father to go to the cheap burger hole-in-the-wall near our marina and buy a bagful of burgers with tons of fried onions. She hadn't been able to keep any food down for over a week and he was afraid to do this. But the other relatives said that, well, it's her dying wish and phooey on what the doctors would think.

My dad sneaked the 'sliders' past the nursing station under his coat. My mom ate one, ate another a half hour later, ate the rest of the fried onions before the night nurse came on duty.

My mom was released from the hospital a few weeks later and lived another 30+ years. She was a doctor and figured her body might be craving that meal for a reason.

She later suspected that maybe the sulfur from the onions, sugar in the ketchup and salt and oil some rehydrated her or kicked some imbalance back into stasis.

In my family, paying attention to what the body is trying to tell us became a mantra. I don't always pay attention but pay a price when I don't. And my mom's not exactly 'last meal' would never have been medical protocol. But it worked!