I’ll Always Look After You
I recently cared for a woman who had multiple acute strokes in a short amount of time. A week before, she had been independent, riding her horse every day, and still taught part-time at the local school, despite being in her 80s.
By the time she got to me, she was completely nonverbal, incontinent, and unable to feed herself. I had a feeling that she was neurologically intact enough to understand what was going on, so I talked to her as much as I could when I was in the room.
I talked to her about her daughters who had called every day, her husband who hadn’t called—but I left that part out—the weather, her horses, and her students who had sent a card.
On the last day of my workweek, her daughter from out of state had finally found a flight up. They sat in silence and held hands for hours.
Visiting hours ended right at shift change, so I walked in to give a report as the daughter was saying goodbye. The patient then spoke. I knew they were her last words, and they were heartbreaking.
She said, “I’ll always be looking after you”. She pointed to her daughter, then at me, and then she fell asleep. Two days later, when I came back to work, I was informed she had passed in the night. Story credit: Reddit / asperges_me_domine