In my mother's final days, I couldn't have found a better group of people to take care of her. To take care of our family as well. Every doctor, nurse, and tech was comforting, empathetic, and truly loving. The one who touched our family the most was a nurse who didn't directly take care of Mom. Delena was partnered with our nurse and would come in to offer assistance to us as needed. Delena was kindhearted, empathetic, supportive, and personable. While she was interacting in care with our primary nurse, she was explaining to us how she's recently started working with her leaders to pilot bereavement kits and fingerprint bracelets for families as they navigate through their end-of-life journey with their family members on the unit. She asked if we'd be interested and would be joyed to offer this to our family.

Delena and our family made the most beautiful bracelets. We were able to add my mother's fingerprint as well as ours to make a heart. She made three of these for myself, my sister and my dad. She even offered to prep more clay for additional family members, too. Every detail of it was perfect, down to the angel wing charm and ridges of our fingerprint. We will cherish these bracelets forever to be able to see our mother's fingerprint and ours as one!

Additionally, Delena brought in a bereavement gift box for our family from the department filled with a beautifully framed quote, a candle, and a teddy bear. We can't wait to put a picture of Mom in the frame, and the candle is perfect. Mom was scared of the dark, and the candle will always remind us of how the path will always be lit by Mom. The teddy bear stayed clutched in my mother's arms as she passed over several days and is now home with me. It's brought me an incredible amount of comfort knowing my mother held it tight over her final days with us. Being able to hold the bear close when I am missing my mom allows her to be tangible, even for a brief moment.

Even though Delena was never assigned to be my mother's nurse directly, there are not enough words to express the impact she left on my family. The care and kindness she delivered wasn't to my mom but to our family! She is the perfect definition of how the smallest actions sometimes have the biggest impact. Delena's compassion and dedication to her work show in how she actively went above and beyond to support the family's needs while mom's nurse cared for her. The world needs more people like Delena to help spread kindness and love; we are not sure we can put into words the sheer magnitude of impact she had on our family. Losing a family member is hard and leaving the hospital without mom was heartbreaking, but we are thankful we had all of these wonderful people around us and have these keepsakes to hold on to forever.