She'd just said goodbye to her 2-year-old son and would not see him for the next eight months.

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"The cake they gave the people on second shift said, 'Good Luck and Goodbye, '" she said, shaking her head.

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They said goodbye, and she put down the phone and wept for a quarter of an hour.

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"You've got the support of your family but you just want to be there with them and go through the whole grief and saying goodbye with them, " she said.

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So two years ago, she stepped outside and puffed her final cigarette and said goodbye.

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"That's the hurtful thing, that I couldn't say goodbye to him or speak to him, " she said.

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London, England (CNN) -- Eight years ago Justine Laymond was told by doctors to say a final goodbye to her family -- she had, they said, only hours left to live before her lungs would stop working and her body shut down.

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James Fenton's mother kissed him goodbye on the evening of 10 July 2010 and said she would see him the next day.

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She said they talked about Gareth Gates from Pop Idol later on and then hugged and said goodbye.

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