MARGIE WAS MY first patient as a home-based nurse. She was paralyzed from the neck down and terminally ill. Every evening I went to her house for a few hours of care. I bathed her, changed her linens and administered her medications, but I often wished I could do more for Margie herself.
She can’t leave the house and has trouble speaking, I thought one December evening as I dried her after her bath. With no family in the area, she had few people in her life—mostly the ones she saw on TV. Just flickering images, I thought. More like background noise than people.
I reached for a bottle of her favorite lotion off the shelf and massaged it into her crepe paper-thin skin. Margie was delighted by the simplest kindness. Her attitude reminded me to keep things in perspective. The earring I’d lost while working or a run in a new pair of stockings wasn’t important enough to think twice about. Not compared with the frustrations Margie had to deal with.
When I arrived the following evening, Margie was waiting by the front window. She had something to tell me. “Okay, Margie,” I said, taking off my coat. “I’m listening.”
Communicating anything complicated took a while, but Margie always got her message across. “You want to make cookies?” I repeated. Not just cookies, Margie explained, but a special recipe for traditional Hanukkah cookies from her childhood. “I’m not much of a cook,” I admitted, “but I’ll give it the old college try.”
この記事は Angels on Earth の Nov/Dec 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Angels on Earth の Nov/Dec 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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