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I live +/- fifty minutes to one hour (depending on traffic/weather) from the hospital. One winter, we had excessive snow. I live in the country, have horses, and a fair bit of property to maintain.
During a long work stretch, which included a lot of call time in addition to regular hours, I was exhausted from the merry-go-round of snow, plowing, shoveling, work, snow, plowing, shoveling, work. I got home in the wee hours one morning to find a kind neighbor had plowed my entire drive, and then spent hours snow-blowing and hand-shoveling around my hay barn and all the paths I needed to access the horses. I cried. I really did. The relief was just overwhelming.
I was out of work for a few weeks after coming down with meningitis, of all the damn things. Two things made me cry:
1) The night supervisor in the hospital brought me a chocolate milk shake and I didn't even ask for one; he just noticed I was awake and miserable at 2 in the morning.
2) After I went home my neighbor across the street mowed my lawn when I had such a headache I couldn't get up off the couch. I heard the noise and I said to myself, "What the heck is that?" and looked out and saw him.
I came home last weekend (I normally work M-F but had volunteered for the whole weekend putting me on a 12 day stretch) my Husband had cleaned a lot! Mopped floors, dishes, laundry, all kinda of stuff!! He does generally help some but he must have been cleaning all day... To me that's the best gift ever!
I definitely march to a different drummer. I was talking to the boss who was my friend. Who's still my friend. We were laughing about something and she looked at me and said "You're so odd". There was such kindness and acceptance about who and what I am. It sounds mean, but it was just the opposite.
She acknowledged my "oddness" with love and acceptance.
If she reads here, she'll know exactly who I am.
Brian, ASN, RN
3 Articles; 3,695 Posts
You do so many good things for others. You save lives. You make people well. What's the nicest thing anyone has ever said or done for you? Please share ... Any gesture, big or small, that touched you.