Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday! Remember back in May when I talked about my work colleague, Dan Gassel, who was in New York coordinating the housing effort for the visiting nurses that were wo
Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday! Remember back in May when I talked about my work colleague, Dan Gassel, who was in New York coordinating the housing effort for the visiting nurses that were working on the COVID crisis? If you missed that post, you can catch itHe shared an article with me that he wrote for the kids' school newsletter. It was so touching and eye-opening that I really wanted to share it with you! There are two hyperlinks in this article that I've highlighted in red.
It all started with a phone call from a friend, checking in on me. With my business of eighteen years sunk and a rebound a very long way away, I am looking for work. Thanks to a tip from a beautiful friend, , I found my way to a local staffing agency that was ramping up its staff to help manage the deployment of 3,400 nurses, bound for New York City.
While I helped nurses through scheduling or rotation questions, our conversations would often drift into a retelling of a story from their day. Our conversations might last forty-five seconds during my busy shifts, or twenty minutes when I was off duty. If they wanted to talk, I was ready to listen to these self-effacing angels. I heard countless stories of nurses being the only “family member” to be with a patient during their hospital stay.
A staffer showed him a closet with various supplies, and he fashioned more than fifty life-saving non-rebreather masks out of medical supplies along with a roll of tape he had in his pocket. The quickly-fashioned masks were extremely effective. I could go on, -- but I’ll stop with just one more story. I came across a nurse who would hustle through the quiet hotel lobby around 4 pm every third or fourth day. One day our paths crossed, and I asked if I could help her, as she looked to be in a bit of a hurry.Turns out, she was hustling to a nearby FedEx store to ship off her breast milk to her infant child back home, and she wanted to make sure she was back in time to catch the bus to her evening shift. Wow.
One particularly awesome angel so loved her note that she asked for a handful more. “Of course. How many do you need?” I asked. And the hits still kept coming….literally. Two Saints students crafted a Spotify playlist, aptly titled “Nurse Bus Ride.” It’s run time is a tidy one hour and one minute. That’s the amount of time it took a nurse to go between her New York Community Hospital and her hotel. Thirty minutes there; thirty minutes back. Those of you who know me know that I love music….and passing along this link was a real highlight for me.
Besides being reminded every day to “Embrace the Absurd:”, I was also reminded of a phrase that is seen in our Saints hallways most every day. I hope we have not been overexposed to it so much, that we dismiss it. Amor Vincit Omnia.The countless nurses who used their phones to Facetime with a patient’s family members, being the only conduit between loved ones who so wanted to be in the same room, yet could not.
And the support staff? Your letters to us, and the care packages we received were all very much appreciated. And we always shared with those who didn’t get any mail that week. You take care of your own, whether it’s on a battlefield, in a high school hallway, or in a bunker masquerading as a hotel.
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