A Dying Man’s Last Wish Was to Feed His Hospice Nurses—A Stranger Made It Happen

Frank Ozimek, 67, was nearing the end of a battle with cancer at Niagara Hospice in Lockport, New York, when he settled on a final wish. It was not for himself. He wanted to provide a meal for the nurses who had cared for him through his last weeks—the people he and his family had come to see as something close to saints. His younger brother, Ken, set out to make it happen.

Ken called Sub Delicious, a local pizza and sub shop, and reached the owner, Tommy Milani. There was a complication: it was Easter weekend, and the restaurant was closed for the holiday. But Milani did not hesitate. “I said, ‘Absolutely, whatever you need, Ken,’” he recalled. Of the hospice nurses, he added simply, “They do an amazing job there. They’re all saints.”

“It was not for himself.”

Milani set aside his own Easter plans, fired up the kitchen and prepared pizzas for the entire nursing staff, then saw to it that the food was delivered. For the nurses, it was a gesture of gratitude from a patient and family they had cared for tenderly. For Frank, it was the fulfillment of a wish to give something back in his final days.

Frank Ozimek died surrounded by the love of a family he leaves behind—three children and five grandchildren. His brother Ken said the kindness meant “the world” to him and urged others to look for their own ways to spread joy. In the end, a dying man’s thoughts had turned outward, toward the caregivers at his bedside, and a stranger with an oven and an open heart had carried that final act of love across the finish line.