A few weeks ago, we got together with some of our other NICU family and a common discussion was how amazing Nurse Jerrica was with our kids and us as parents. This is not the first time we have heard this, as we had this conversation regularly with parents while we were at the NICU as well. In our case, we were honoured that she was our son R's core nurse, and she always went way above and beyond for R and us.

This is the story that we heard that sent it over the top, to where we decided to reach out to SickKids and see if there is some sort of award or recognition we can nominate her for. The story is about how she made an amazing lifelong impact on the J family. Jerrica was the nurse for their son T for only one day during his stay in the NICU. That day he had to go for a test in another part of the hospital but before he went, she saw that there was a duck hat beside his bed. Not knowing the significance of that hat, she told T's mom before he went for his tests that he needed a picture in the hat. She helped his mom get it on T and prop him up for the picture. Fast forward to today, that picture sits above their fireplace and is the most memorable picture the family has of their son/brother. Unfortunately, T passed away at SickKids after spending 16 weeks in hospital. Little did Jerrica know that the hat had a big significance to the family, as they now can say they have a picture of all three of their kids, including T, wearing the hat when they were newborns. This is just one example of the extra effort Jerrica puts in.

For us, the list is very long, but something that stands out to us is not only did she look after R, but she reached out to Child Life to arrange some Christmas activities/crafts for us to do while we spent time at the bedside over the holiday season, since we were there for Christmas. Jerrica is a light for so many families in the NICU and definitely deserves this recognition.