Austin Proehl sat across from Joel Poe, a 60-year-old bone marrow cancer patient he met during a hospital visit with the North Carolina football team, talking about last week’s game.
The once barren walls were decorated in Carolina blue pictures and posters — a single UNC blanket draped across the white hospital bed. Framed family pictures adorned the tables.
The family of four joked with Proehl, unaware of what lay ahead.
It was just like the countless visits that had come before. Proehl talked to Poe about football, and Poe asked Proehl about his dad.
Proehl met Poe — a funny, outgoing soul whose face was always lit up with a smile — on a Friday two years ago.