When my father had cancer & eventually died - there were 2 co-workers that came over to visit him when he was going through chemo, and those were the 2 that came to visit the family during the first visitation day. I know one of them became absolutely furious, and went in the next day and gave a bunch of people hell... And several co-workers showed up the next night.

While I don't know that I wanted anyone guilt tripped into showing up - it was nice to hear a lot of stories about my father in an environment I'd never seen him in and it was appreciated.