I can’t believe how quickly Christmas flew by. This year, it was just a small affair with me, Mr Grump and Miss Hap. We had a wonderful day though which began at 5.30 with an excited little girl coming to wake me up. It continued with lots to eat, lots to drink (Mr Grump was well away) and some board games to argue about!  (I won the LOGO game fair and square)!

Anyway, today it was back to work, and I was on  a late shift which I very rarely do. I don’t like going in halfway through, as it puts me out of kilter. No need to have worried though, it was the usual busy madness but with hordes of relatives thrown into the mix! Normally  when I have been off for a couple of days, I come back and everything is still the same as most of our patients are usually there for some while.

However, this time I only knew one of the patients as four had been discharged over Christmas and sadly, one lady had passed away only yesterday. I was particularly upset over this, as I did not expect it at all, In fact, I had told my daughter that she could come into the ward this evening when they picked me up and I would introduce her to ‘Molly’. She was a 94-year-old woman who was as bright as a button She had a fantastic memory, as I was there when she very first came onto the ward, and I told her my name as I introduced myself. She remembered it next morning plus all the other staff members’ names that she came into contact with.

She had a number of medical problems but was always bright and cheerful and loved a good chat. Her brain was sharp and she liked a laugh and joke. She knew little snippets about the nurses’ lives and would often ask us how our children were, or what decorations we had put up for Christmas; all sorts of things really ,just taking an interest in us. She would very often say,

“Give us a kiss” out of the blue, which we always did, or we gave her a hug, She was just a very warm and affectionate lady, who sadly had never had children of her own, due to a very bad miscarriage, as she told us. She did however, have nephews and nieces that came to visit her, who thought the world of her.

We do see many patients, and although we treat everybody the same, there are some that just stick in your mind for one reason or another. Sadly, due to the nature of our ward and the age of our patients, some of them pass away, which is always hard. However, for me, I am not only upset that Molly died yesterday, but also that I didn’t get to say goodbye to her. I had received a text from my daughter asking about meeting Molly which I saw at break time. I decided to tell her that Molly had ‘gone home’. I would like to think, that in some way she has gone home to be with her dear husband that had passed some years ago, and maybe even meet the child she had lost. I hope so.