Would you see your ex in his deathbed?

I had a message left for me at my work from a Hospice Centre (I'm a nurse and you can lookup where I work, so that's why I'm anonymous on here). The call was from a nurse who was trying to locate me and was requesting a call back about a personal matter.

I called the Hospice Centre after work and the nurse explained that my ex boyfriend is a client of theirs and would like to see me. He has terminal lung cancer which has metastasized throughout his body. His prognosis is not good and he has (maybe) weeks to live.

He's 40, and from what I know never married or had kids. We dated in our twenties and broke it off 12 years ago, soon after I started working at my job. We haven't spoken since but did run into each other about 3 years ago, and had a quick chat. He never mentioned cancer at that time so I don't know when he was diagnosed.

He has a brother who he is not close with but no other family. We broke up because we just fell out of love. It was mutual. I am happily married to the love of my life and we have two young kids. I haven't told my husband yet about the call.

The Hospice Centre is only a 40 minute drive from me and I think it would be nice to see him and keep him company. No one should die alone, but I don't know how to tell my husband about the call and that I want to go see my ex. I would like to keep my ex company so he feels a little less lonely in his final few days or weeks. My ex and I were friends until my husband and I started dating. We ended our friendship because it made my husband uncomfortable.

So... What the heck do I do? He must be so scared and alone. I want to respect my husband, but in my heart, I can't imagine being alone at a time like this. If my husband's ex reached out to him in similar circumstances I wouldn't hesitate to say yes, keep her company!

I'm just so conflicted.

Edit: I told my husband about the call and I said that I'm going to keep my ex company for a few hours a day as much as I can until he passes. Originally, my husband said he wasn't comfortable with me going, then he started making excuses like who's going to watch the kids and who's going to make dinner. I told him that we have family who can come and watch the kids or I can go while they're at daycare. We have frozen meals or can order in. I told him that I'm going and he was a bit snippy at first, but he came around and said he'd come down with me and our kids if that's what I want, and if my ex wants to see them, he's ok with that too.

I'm just about to leave for the hospice centre. I made dinner in advance for tonight in case I get delayed. I'm going alone today, but only because it's my day off and my husband is at work. Our kids are in daycare until 4:30pm.

I'll keep you posted about what happens but thank you everyone for your kind words ❤️

Update Nov 17: I'm going again today. He is very thin, on oxygen, and a PCA (patient controlled analgesia, AKA a pain pump). He slept a good portion of my visit yesterday. It's tough seeing him this way. I spent over 5 hours there yesterday and it was actually really nice. It was like we never stopped being friends. He has only been on hospice for a week and a bit, but I'm his first visitor.

My husband has been very supportive and on Saturday, my whole family is coming to visit my ex. He wants to see my kids and husband, and I'm going to bake his favourite cookies because he talked about them yesterday.

Update Nov 21: He passed peacefully early this morning. I stayed with him for almost the entire day and he passed in my arms. He was last awake on Sunday, but he passed very peacefully and comfortably. My husband has been super understanding through all this and he even came up yesterday and had his mom watch the kids.

Thank you all for your kind words. I'm sad at the loss of my friend, but we were able to reconnect toward the end and that brought us both so much joy.