Monday, February 28, 2011

Angels

It has been a rough week for some people close to me. And myself.

One of my closest friends from college lost her little boy last week. He only lived about a week. I had the honor of meeting the sweet little guy in the NICU before his mom and dad took him home. The funeral is today. Pretty sure I'll have a big red swollen nose before the day is over.

My patient died over the weekend. Was is expected? Yes. Did that make it any easier? No. The family loved their day shift nurse (they went way back), so she stayed as well until the little girl passed. In my five years of working at this childrens hospital I have never seen a child earn their angel wings while I was in the room. The reality of the things we had just witnessed and done for this child didn't hit me until I got in the car to go home (they usually send you home if a child dies on your shift). I bawled my eyes out the entire ride home. Then woke Rog up when I got home and he let me cry it out a bit longer.

Today I'm more at peace with all of the situations life has dealt these families; though, I could still cry at any moment if you caught me unprepared.

But this week has stressed how grateful I am for the gospel in my life. Life isn't fair sometimes. We all know this. My heart aches for my friends who are dealing with rough trials. I wish I could bring each of them some chocolate and let them rant and rave and cry. But I can't begin to describe how lucky I felt in each of these situations that I believed in heaven. And eternal families.

My patient's sister was being brought into the room so she could be there when her sister passed away. Her uncle was talking to her, I was behind them listening. He said "Do you remember what we told you? That '.......' will go to heaven tonight to be with Jesus?" This sweet little girl responded in tears "yes, she will be an angel".

I cried then and there listening to that sweet conversation. It was an honor and a privilege to be there to witness this innocent little girl earn her ticket to heaven that night. And I'm so very grateful for the Angels that watch over us and our loved ones during these rough times.

4 comments:

RyanandHailee said...

Hey Ashlee- Your little girl is adorable.... Oh my goodness!
That is absolutley awful..... But it really makes us grateful to have that knowledge of being eternal families for sure! Hang in there :(

Jessi said...

{Hey girlie, are you on facebook? I sent this message out to any betas I could think of...}

As you all probably know, Kristin lost her baby boy this past week. I thought it would be beautiful if we all pitched in and bought her a custom necklace from the vintage pearl with Benjamin's name on it. Here is a link to the one I was thinking:

http://www.thevintagepearl.com/products/rectanglenamesonachain_p15

It's about $40 with shipping, give or take a little. If we get a bunch of us to go in on it, it would not be expensive at all. I would be happy to coordinate it and just have whoever wants to contribute pay me back. Could anyone interested in contributing please text me as soon as possible so I can get a solid count and figure out how much each will owe? I probably won't be able to order it until I get the money from everyone. Here is my number:

801-708-4603

And please forward this to any beta you can think of. I think this would mean a lot to our sweet Kristin.

Love you girls,
Jessi

Laura said...

Oh man. I can't imagine it. This post makes me cry and I don't even know the people.

Shana Smith said...

Oh this breaks my heart! Even though we have the gospel in our lives, I dont think it makes loosing a loved one that much easier. However knowing that families are eternal is a huge comfort! These events stick with me and I constantly think about it even though I dont personally know these people.. Ugh, I dont know how you work at a childrens hospital, I would be a wreck, but we desperately need nurses like you!