Genesis 48:7

“And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some way to come to Ephrath. And I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem).”

His thoughts turn momentarily to himself. He is about to die but he has no regrets, for long before he had lost the one who possessed his whole heart, his beloved Rachel, Joseph's mother, and now he will go to her. The description demonstrates how he ever kept the scene in his heart and the tenderness with which he remembered her. It is because of his great love for her, the great passion of his life, that he is now intending to adopt her two grandchildren.