It was 3am. Tyler was sleeping next to me on the padded windowsill of our ICU room at Children’s hospital. The last few hours were blurry. The trip to the emergency room. Nora’s seizure. The trauma room. The doctor who yelled, “ she’s not breathing!”, the CT Scan. The hustle and bustle of doctors and nurses. Nora’s tiny body riddled with cords and tubes. Our sedated baby with a machine breathing for her. The respiratory therapist who brought Tyler orange Gatorade. My explosive crying into that stupid hospital pillow.
We were exhausted, unsure what the morning would bring, but finding rest in knowing we were on the road to getting our baby the help she needed.
I was fully extended on the chair behind Nora’s bed, sleeping on again off again as our nurses came and went. I watched Joey enter the room through the giant sliding glass doors that separated our room from the hall.
We had two nurses that night, Alicia and Joey. Joey had just moved from Phoenix where he worked with adults, and now he was in his dream job, working with kiddos in pediatrics. It was Tyler who asked Joey about his life. I personally could not have cared less about Phoenix and dream jobs. Of course sweet Tyler would ask someone else about their story while our own life was upside-down. I married gold, pure gold.
I watched Joey position himself on the right side of Nora’s bed. I assumed he was going to check her monitor, but as I looked closer I noticed he had a fluffy teddy bear in his hand. I watched as he carefully positioned the bear next to little Nora. He rustled the bear a bit, tilted his head, took a step back, then scooped the bear up, clearly dissatisfied. He walked around the bed to Nora’s left and positioned the bear under her tubing. He tilted his head but eventually shook it in disproval then scooped the bear up and walked out of the room.
A few minutes later he returned, the bear now wearing a silk ribbon. Joey again positioned the bear on the left side of Nora’s bed, under her tubing. Satisfied, he quietly left the room.
It was a beautiful gift from a beautiful soul.
I thanked God for this physical reminder of His love for Nora and for our little family of three. I thanked him for Joey and his kind heart. I pushed the hospital pillow aside, grasped Tyler’s hand, slid it under my cheek and fell asleep.
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Photo credit: Jessica Rice Photography
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