I will never be able to describe how much Shanda meant to our family and how much love we will always have for her. She was the only person who could put a smile on our sweet angel's face. My niece was diagnosed with cancer when she was just 6 years old. She was so scared and so sad because she was stuck in the hospital for weeks at a time when all she wanted was to go home and play. When we first learned about the cancer, Shanda was our nurse and she was amazing. She sat next to my niece and told her some jokes and then asked if she could listen to her teddy bear's heart with her stethoscope before listening to her heart. My niece smiled and laughed for the first time in days. Shanda sat down and talked with my entire family and answered all of our questions. She was so sweet, patient and compassionate. On the day my niece had to get surgery for her port, Shanda asked her if she wanted her to babysit her teddy bear while she was getting surgery. When my niece got back to her room with her new port, Shanda came into the room with her teddy bear. She put a pretend port on her bear so that my niece wouldn't be the only one with a port. She even hung a fluid bag for the teddy bear that was just like hers. She probably had no idea how happy this made my niece and what a beautiful moment it was for our family to see her smile after such an emotional day.
Over the next few months, Shanda took care of my niece many times. Even when she wasn't our nurse, she would come into our room and do the "string in her lip" trick for her. This was something that my niece talked about all the time! Another moment that I will always remember was on a day that she had to get her needle replaced in her port. These days were always very hard on everyone. Shanda was not her nurse this day but my niece asked her nurse if she could come in during the needle change. She came in and held her hand. She distracted her with funny jokes and funny faces while the other nurse set everything up. When it was time to start, my niece was crying and Shanda turned her head toward her and started to sing her a funny song about a tooting unicorn. She started laughing and was able to calm down while the needle was put in. Shanda made up words to this funny song until everything was done and then gave her a huge hug and told her how proud she was of her.
I can't tell you how much this woman touched our lives. She was a light in our darkness and an angel that we so desperately needed. My niece passed away just 8 months after we learned about her cancer. We miss our angel so much but are so grateful for the care and love that we got from all of her nurses and doctors while they tried to save her life. I want Shanda to know how much she meant to all of us and how much my niece absolutely adored her. Thank you Shanda, for the special unicorn poop medicine that you made, for the laughter and the smiles that you put on our sweet girl's face, for the water syringe that you let her squirt the doctor when he told her she couldn't eat, for the songs that you sang, for the jokes that you always told, for the hugs and compassion that you always provided for our family, and for the love that you always gave. You are an angel on earth and we know that she is smiling down on you from heaven. Thank you for being you.