You might have heard of this:
http://nypost.com/2015/08/10/belief-in-god-really-does-make-you-feel-better-study-suggests/
What I know from personal experience is that the lack of any belief in God and afterlife can be unbearably painful for someone facing death. If one doesn't think of God when facing death. If one doesn't reconcile their own passing in some way, how do any of us live if not obliviously -- as we all move towards our own deaths all our lives. I mean no disrespect to atheists who have built a firm intellectual viewpoint without easy compromises and stick with them to the end with dignity, and I don't aim to convert anyone to a religion, but do think that that concept has bearing to oneself in questioning our lives and deaths.
To reconcile oneself to the certainty of loss of life (in whatever manner, theistic or otherwise) is not to give up the battle, but "rage, rage against the dying of the light" is bad advice.