Nurse Ratchet?

I stood in front of the gathering, our wedding, and proposed a toast. So it wasn't traditional, it was our wedding. Three women. The three that had made our day possible, Grace's Mother, My Mother and Sheila Patten. Others deserve to be honored, but for the previous year Sheila had been the beacon keeping us on a straight line. She was Grace's nurse.
Granted, she wasn't all that exclusive. After all she did work at a community hospital and have a few other obligations, but bottom line she was Grace's Nurse.

That year and the next I became very familiar to hospitals, nurses, doctors, emt's, etc. Grace had some serious troubles and was facing major surgery. Not alone! Her daughters were there, so was Brenda, our friends and Sheila. It has been about twenty years since that toast and we heard from Sheila again this past summer. Retired, but still a nurse, and still a friend. Next year Sheila! 

Grace is back fighting the good fight one more time. Sheila is up in Massachusetts and we have met a new group of wonderful people. Surprise, they too are nurses. In all honesty I would much prefer a different way of meeting nice people! But I am equally happy to find them at the most needed time in just the right place. Kathleen, Donna and the rest...here is a morning toast..."You are doing your job, but it seems so much more to us, so you have to be doing it well! Thank you!"