So, obviously I’m a bit late in adding this blog post, as noted by the title. But this was a noteworthy moment in my nursing career that I wanted to share.

I was working on Christmas eve, which of course, is always a bit of a challenge. Patients don’t want to be stuck in the hospital on a holiday, and are sometimes grumpier. Staff don’t want have to be working on a holiday (except for unicorns like me, who love the overtime!) Being in a setting where people could be and are actively dying can be really depressing, and even more so on a holiday.

I had my usual mix of patients that night; some more challenging than others, some more friendly than others. One patient that I loved was an older gentleman, who had lived such an interesting life. He had been a jazz musician, and had traveled the world with musicians, both famous and lesser-known, in large and small venues. He was talking to me about learning about the various cultures he’d experienced, and had said he’d made a point of immersing himself into whatever country and culture he was in at the time. He’d had adventures in Italy, France, Brazil, Mexico, and so many other countries, as well as every region imaginable in the United States. He was joking about how he’d done fire-walking, and mountain climbing, and “I even learned how to tell fortunes and do Cajun magic in the Louisiana Bayou”! I was chuckling at his enthusiastic re-telling of some of his adventures, and his self-effacing humor. And at this point, he said “Honest, just ask, and I’ll tell you your future!”

Well of course, how can you refuse a free psychic reading, right? So I joked back at him about whether he had a crystal ball hidden away in his bedside table or if I needed to take off my gloves so he could read my palm. And he was laughing too, as I said, “So let me guess, in the future, I’m going to do great things!”

And at that, this sweet older gentleman stopped laughing with me, and smiled at me so very kindly, and gently said “Of course you will, because you are a nurse and you already do”.

MIND.BLOWN.

Sometimes, the universe has an amazing accuracy at gauging what we need, what we need to see or hear or do, at the time when we need it most. I had had a rough couple of weeks, with every shift having it’s share of trauma or disaster in it, and I was stressed and hitting that moment of thinking “Why the hell am I doing this??”

This man, this angel of the universe, gave me that answer, so clearly. Thank you, you very sweet and kind man, for sharing your life adventures with me, and for including me in them.