What is a Nurse?

If you must get sick, a Nurse is the nicest thing that can happen to you.
Nurses come in all sizes, shapes, colors and ages. Efficiently cheerful, they will rustle past you many times a day.

When you rub your Aladdin’s Lamp (or sound your buzzer) your little Genie appears. Perhaps they have been summoned needlessly a dozen times already. But they are cheerfully ready to soothe you, to help you down your medicine, to smooth down your bed, to answer your fears.

The Nurse is the Doctor's guard against forgetfulness, his questioning conscience, at times his challenge, and at all times his skilled right arm.

Their charming cap (well, use to be anyway) perches undisturbed through the roughest day. They have no self for themselves. Their all is for their patients. If they are short with one patient, it is because they are pressing to return to the one whose need is greater.

The Big Show (life itself) must go on. This is the Nurse's creed, their battle, their drive. They will fight to the end with every trick, every knowledge, ever passion.

At the end of the day, the Nurse returns home, physically weary, but with their inner light glowing brightly, for they have richly earned the peace within themselves. If you must get sick, you are mighty lucky to have a Nurse happen to you.

When I am Dead

I do not want a gaping crowd

To come with lamentations loud,

When life has fled;

Nor would I have my words or ways

Rehearsed, perhaps mid tardy praise,

When I am dead

 

I do not want strange, curious eyes

To see my face when still it lies,

In silence dread;

Nor do I want them, if they would,

To tell my deeds were ill or good,

When I am DEAD.

 

I only want a chosen few

Who stood through good and evil, too,

True friendship’s test;

Just they who sought to find the good,

And then as only true friends could,

Forgave the rest.

 

They who with sympathetic heart,

Sought hope and comfort to impart,

Where there was life;

Not keeping all the tears and sighs

Till weary worn out nature dies

,And end the strife.

 

I’d have them come, “the friendly few”,

And drop, perhaps, a tear or two,

By kindness led;

Not many tears , I’d have them shed,

Nor do I want much sung or said,

When I am Dead.

 

To have them each come in alone,

And call me in the old sweet tone,

Would suit me best;

And then without a sob or moan,

Go softly out and leave alone

the dead to rest.

 

Just as I’ve lived, almost unknown

A life unmarked, obscure, and lone,

So let me die;

Just one who lived, and loved and died-

A mound of earth and naught beside,

There let me lie.

 

James Edward Wilson - Poet

Please click on music for this page


As a mother there are no words that I can say to soften the sorrow or even lessen the anguish and pain that is felt from losing a child. Those of us parents, family and friends that are left behind feel a profound sense of sadness, emptiness, anger, disbelief and loss. Pangs of deep loneliness set in as we survivors envision a future without our loved one.  It is so difficult to realize that our loved one will no longer be present physically or to hear their laughter, to see their smile.  To hear them say, "Mom and Dad -  I’m home"; to share conversations, walks, hugs, dreams or ideas with us.  It is such a great loss, because it involves losing a piece of oneself ... a part of what was very important.

Everyone we love becomes a part of us. But it's important to realize that departed loved ones will always be with us. They live on in our hearts, in our memories, and in the lives of all who knew them. They are very close to us in spirit, having only gone beyond the sound of our voices and the touch of our hands. They are only in the next room. While death brings sadness, we should also try to have a sense of joy for the loved one who enters into a "new home."

 

May we find great comfort in knowing that our loved ones are safe and free from all tears, pain, trials, and troubles ... for now they are where nothing can ever hurt them again.

It is my heartfelt wish as you view Paul’s poems and photos, that you will receive some personal comfort and strength or be of assistance to comfort others in their need for someone to listen.

As a mother this is a way that I have learned to cope by doing something special for our son.

To my sister, Valerie in Florida -  Thank you Sis -  without your creation of Paul's first  web page and letting me help in the design, it would have been only a dream and not a reality. Thank you for putting up with me and making changes when asked.   I love you sister. And after 15 years problems occurred with that beautiful web site, Now i have temporary created this one for his 16 th year away from this world.

 

To my husband, Peter; our daughter, Cathy; and son, Sean;  all of our other family and friends -- Thank you for putting up with me not being there for you.

 

To Father Brian, my dear friend, thanks for being there for me when I needed someone to listen, and a shoulder to cry on. Somehow you always knew how to make me smile.

And Last but not least, to Paul’s extended family of nurses, classmates, instructors and a large circles of friends. Thank you for the letters, cards, phone calls and your friendship you have shown Peter and myself over the past 16 years.  I would have not come this far without your support and compassion, the sharing of photos, stories, and happy memories. We have form very special friendships that I know they will last till the end of time.

 

Thank you to Queen Elizabeth ll Hospital, Halifax, Paul’s co- workers of  4.1, THANK YOU for the Memorial Plaque you placed on the floor in his memory.

 

To all parents, especially mothers who visit this site and who have also lost a child, if you ever need to have someone to chat with or just someone to listen, or to share your pain. Please Email me with your address, phone number or email address.   I will get back to you as soon as possible.

 

May God bless you all who suffer from the lost of a loved one, especially a child..........Paul’s Mom