Eminem August 2013

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Teen's dying wish to meet Eminem is fulfilled Sunday night

Gage Garmo, 17, died Monday

CNN  — 

The Real Slim Shady can be a really nice guy when the chips are down.

Gage Garmo, 17, got to meet Eminem Sunday evening, fulfilling a wish he had. The Rochester Hills, Michigan, teen died Monday.

The rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, made a surprise visit to Garmo’s house Sunday, spending the time chatting about football and school.

“We’re really happy we were able to make it happen,” Mary Grace McCarter, executive director of The Rainbow Connection, told the Oakland Press, a suburban Detroit newspaper. The Rainbow Connection is a Michigan-based organization for children with life-threatening illnesses. “It was really something special.”

According to the paper, Garmo had been diagnosed with bone cancer as a freshman in high school in 2010. His leg was amputated in a measure to stop the disease, but it recurred and spread to his lungs.

Garmo was remembered at a candlelight vigil Monday night that hundreds attended.