March 25, 2020

Family Matters

My cousin is a nurse. She’s more like a sister than a cousin. When she was struggling in nursing school she would come to my house and help me put the kids to bed. We would stay up for hours; me quizzing her on words and concepts I couldn’t begin to understand... we did this until we could barely keep our eyes open. Those nights, she promised me that if I would help her graduate from nursing school, she would be at my beck and call, night and day for whatever medical dilemma we had for the rest of our lives. She graduated, and she definitely kept her end of the bargain!

As time went on…

That was twenty years ago and every sniffle, every unidentifiable bump, every cough and every fever, no matter what time of night; she answered my call. I watched her lovingly bathe and bandage our elderly grandparents. I listened to her cry over the loss of a patient she wasn’t ready to let go of, but lost. I recently listened to her tell me exhaustedly what her life is now like in the midst of the Coronavirus. She is a great nurse. She loves her job, she loves her patients, and she does something that I (and countless others) could never do. Thank God for her, and all of the other healthcare professionals who show up in a crisis and do their jobs, because it’s what they do. We literally would not be here without them.

During COVID-19…

Today I addressed envelopes with notes of encouragement to all of the doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals I know, and included a gold leaf cross or heart with a velvet pouch. I want to remind them not only how much we need them, but also how much we love and appreciate them... especially in times like these.