Kristen Bell's surprise for fiance's dying father

Enlarge Image

Kristen Bell

Dax Shepard will never forget the moment his dying father met his unborn child.

The 'Parenthood' actor and fiancee Kristen Bell - who he refers to as his wife - are expecting their first child and Dax was touched when Kristen, 32, flew from Los Angeles to visit his 62-year-old father in hospital, just before he died in December.

He wrote on his blog Don't Try: "At one point, unbeknownst to both of us, my wife walked into the room...She lifted her shirt up and he put his hand on her swollen stomach. He left it there for the better part of an hour.

"He was smiling from ear to ear, sitting contently, unable to put together a sentence, but still capable of connecting to the new family member we were creating.

"She had flown in from LA without any warning. It was a surprise. It was an amazing, incredible, perfectly timed surprise.

"He wasn't going to make it to the birth, but that didn't get in the way of him meeting the new baby. It was an emotional and triumphant moment. One I will never forget. If I live to be a thousand, I will still be in debt to my wife for giving him that one last thrill."

Dax, 38, also opened up about the final moments he spent with his dad outside of hospital.

He wrote: "I took him on his final jailbreak. I threw him in a wheelchair and rolled him through 20 degree weather to his favorite restaurant, where I watched him pick at his waffles and bacon.

"He couldn't have had more than four bites over the course of an hour. It was a very clear signal to me that the end was near (sic)."