Great post.

In my life, my exposure to death and loss is extremely limited. I work in IT. When we have a death, it’s usually a piece of hardware. Sometimes we hasten the death of a machine by taking a baseball bat…never mind.

So why am I here writing this? OhCountess is a registered nurse. She worked the ER back in the day. She was also a the nurse with the most Peds training in the medical/surger areas. She’s also got wicked cool mommy skills. My learning to cope with death came from learning how to cope and help my wife cope with the stress and experiences from her job.

When she was going through nursing school, she spent one week working the pediatric oncology floor. As a young man that has never really experience death first hand, I needed to learn quickly. Each night she came home with a new story of a family’s loss. My heart ached. I did my best to hold my wife and be a good listener. Quite often that was all I can do. I have no words that make anything better.

She told me stories of parents that just dropped the kids off at the hospital because the child “was very ill.” It was common knowledge that these parents just needed a break. Other children were in for serious medical problems and never had visitors. We had long talks about offering to take these children into our home permanently. How my wife never seriously injured one of the parents when they picked up the child, I’ll never know. OhCaptain would probably have a long criminal history if I was there.

After the birth of our first child, things really changed for her. I remember on more then one occassion her coming home an emotional wreck. A child had been in the hospital for something that would make most grown men cry, and wouldn’t you know, all she saw was our daughter’s face on this baby. I could never image the pain.

Tell Dadisodes I understand. I could never say I understand what it’s like to be in your’s or my wife’s situation. Be proud of your work. Nurses are quite possible the closest thing we have to living angels walking amonst us.

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Beautifully written, and what an adorable shot of Dadi/Babisodes.

Hope the time before he gets home passes quickly!

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Just be sure to treasure your blessed life and don’t let death cheat you of that enjoyment. I say that to myself as much as to you.

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