Ms. Aine Lynch wandered into my room on a bright and sunny Monday morning. In reality it could have been the dreariest morning imaginable, and I would not have ever noticed. Aine herself is simply made of sunshine.
It was refreshing to see someone close to my own age. Although she had fewer years of experience than other nurses, it did not at all correlate to her quality as a health care provider. I can confidently say she is the best nurse I’ve ever encountered across four different hospitals. Her compassion, humor, encouraging nature, friendliness, genuine kindness, and respect for others make her an exemplary healthcare worker.
To say she was hilarious would be a drastic understatement. She made me laugh for the first time in months- which given the state of my mental health was certainly not an easy feat. Aine saw that I wasn't doing well in regard to eating food, so she brought me a handful of peanut butter and crackers because I told her I loved peanut butter. It was the first thing I was able to eat in days. She brought me water and encouraged me to drink it. (I’m usually very bad at drinking water plus my dehydration was a big contributing factor to my heart being constantly tachycardic). She said once my heart rate stabilized a bit, she could take me on a walk-which we later went on. Our walks were definitely the best part of each day. At one point she even went to her manager's room and snagged me a secret Kit Kat, which we had a laugh over. She introduced me to this silly stuffed animal named Hector who was her “mortal enemy”. Aine was just silly and kind and fun in the exact way I needed.
I was in a place where I was suffering mentally. I was deeply terrified, and reliving my worst memories on repeat, and so detached from reality that I felt like I was a ghost. Aine treated me like a human being. She treated me with respect. She treated me with care. She knew what I had done to end up in the hospital and didn't treat me as less than any other patient. Whenever she wasn’t helping another patient, we would take walks around the hospital together. She never pressed in conversation why I ended up in the hospital. We would just go back and forth, laughing about random things and talking about happier times. She is the one who made my time there bearable. She is the one who, likely without realizing she was doing it, reminded me why I needed to keep fighting. She reminded me a lot of my closest friends. I forgot that there actually are good people out there. There are funny people. There are kind people. There are people who will build you up when you feel broken. There are people who feel like sunshine.
There are people like Aine. I think the world would be a better place if there were more people like her.