Heavenly Peace

Katie had two Hospice patients die on her in the last couple of weeks. Rather than being brought down by the experience, she's exalted by it. That's my best friend.

One guy wouldn't let anyone touch him unless they were Christian. He didn't have a lot of energy, so all he would do would just gasp out "Christian?" to every nurse on the unit, and if they weren't Christian "enough," he just wouldn't let them touch him. Katie of course, just smiled and said she was, even though she's more sort of an earth-pagan-universal-love type of girl. It's all about patient care. He accepted her, and didn't accept this one girl who WAS a real Christian. Though I think Katie's more Christian than most Christians -- especially the guy who claims to be a super Christian and grabs his coworker's asses when his wife is not around...

Anyway, he asked for the nurses to sing Christmas songs - real, Jesus-y, Christmas songs. And of course Katie knows none of those, so she just sort of hummed along. Finally, the day after Christmas, he died while listening to the Hawaiian "Silent Night" on his Christmas CD. "Moe me ka maluhia lani..." sleep in heavenly peace.

The other was a guy who had trouble breathing and was real uncomfortable one night. So Katie offered to rub the guy's back. And he died. Right then. And she said it was the high point of her nursing career to date.

See why my friends are the best people in the world?