Early one morning, my childhood best friend called me to come up to the ICU where her mom, Darcy, was a patient. That morning, the doctors had suggested that they redirect care for her mother. I am a neonatal ICU nurse, so she asked me to come to give my opinion on what she should do as her mother's medical decision maker. After talking, she decided it was in her mother's best interest to transfer to comfort care that morning. She asked me to stay and be there with her through it.

When I walked into the hospital room, I met this nurse. They would be the one caring for Darcy, ultimately through her passing. As we started the process of transferring Darcy to comfort care, this nurse took every chance to tell Darcy what exactly they were doing, whether Darcy was in a space to understand the process or not. As they were administering pain medication while Darcy was passing, they would say, "You're safe, Darcy. You're surrounded by people who love you. Your daughter is here. Your nurse is here, too”. They were incredibly attentive to the needs of the room. Whether that was hanging by the bedside or stepping out to give us space.

This nurse was also aware of the fact that my friend was Darcy's only child and that this was an incredibly hard decision for her to make. Right before we left, this nurse sat down and spoke directly to my friend. The conversation that the nurse had with my friend moved me to tears. They validated the fact that standing with your mother through the entire death process is an incredibly hard thing to do. They reminded her that she was strong and that she did everything she could for her mom while she was still alive. They explained to her that this was going to be a really hard season, but that she was going to come out of this okay. It was so beautiful to be able to see the compassion they had for my friend in the hardest moment of her life. There are so many things that happened that day that made a horrible day just a little better. My friend says that it shows her mom was caring for her, even through her passing.

As we were leaving, we were talking about how wonderful this nurse's care was, and my friend said that she believes that it happened that day because her mom knew that this nurse would not only care for her, but would care so greatly for her daughter, too. I've been a nurse for five and a half years, and this was one of the (if not the) greatest examples of kind and compassionate nursing care that I have ever witnessed. I'm so thankful that they were the one to walk us through a day like this. They made my friend feel safe, loved, and validated, and I will be forever grateful for that.