I have a mom of a student this year (I’m a teacher) who has gone through unimaginable things as well with your children, especially her oldest child. For years and years and years, she has been in and out of the hospital. The family knows that hospital life. During this whole ordeal, and especially at the beginning, I had lots and lots of people reach out, and that was all really nice, but she reached out and it meant a bit more. And it meant a bit more because she could relate, and we immediately have that bond now; for better or for worse. She told me she understands sitting in a hospital chair for hours and days and months and you would gladly switch places with your baby, and you are broken on the inside. Because no one can understand that brokenness unless you go through something like this. It is a club that you never want to be apart of.

You start to make Hospital Friends. These friends come in many forms. It is the people who reach out and understand the hospital life. It is the people you meet at the hospital, the patients and the parents. We can share experiences, thoughts, feelings, and wish each other well. We get excited for each other when our children get a heart, and have no signs of rejection, and are cleared for sports. We know we are in this journey together. The last group of Hospital Friends are the nurses. Nurses are much like teachers in that they are in the people business. Good nurses and good teachers share many of the same characteristics. In our experience, and I hope this is more common than not, we had so many exceptional nurses. And in the cardiac ICU, you usually always have at least 1 nurse in the room. With us being in the hospital for about 4 months, and for one of us to be at the hospital every single day, we got to know our nurses on a personal level. I know how many children they are, or how long their commute is, or how long they have been working, or their likes and dislikes. We got to experience playoff baseball and the NFL together. We talked about life. The best part was how much they loved and cared for our daughter. It was not uncommon for us to be gone and come back and find 2-4 nurses playing with Emerson, or Emerson being held by one of them, or Emerson out on the unit with one of them. We loved to see this. With how much joy Emerson brings us, we loved to see how much joy she brought the nurses as well. On bad days, the nurses would come visit Emerson and get a smile to brighten their day. We formed bonds with these people. I only miss one thing about the hospital…and that would be our nurse friends.

We have talked often about God putting us in the right place. Loma Linda is not a place that I would normally visit. In fact, I don’t even know how many times I have driven by Loma Linda on my way to San Diego and had no idea it was there. But Loma Linda will always have a special place in my heart. That wing will always have a special place in my heart. Those nurses will always have a special place in my heart.

Hospital Friends are bonds with people I never thought I would have, but it is truly a blessing. They are the best kind of people, really special people. I am a better person for getting to know them.

Thank you Hospital Friends.