Paperwork has to be the most unglamorous thing nurses do, but paperwork made my hero. I needed documentation to get my mother-in-law into memory care assisted living and needed the documentation by Friday. After being on hold for 45 minutes I gave up calling the main neurology number and found the nurse's number. Nurse Julie answered my call. She was calm, helpful, and completely understood that this was literally a matter of life and death. She called me the next day to let me know she hadn't forgotten, that the doctor was out of town but that I would have the documentation. She called me again the next day to let me know it had been sent and received. It's just paperwork. But it was the hurdle that stood between my family taking the first deep breath knowing that my mother-in-law would be safe and handled for the first time since she'd gotten dangerous to herself and others 6 months ago.

Those papers stood between us and hope. Us and sleep. Us and being able to breathe. Those papers were life and death, and Julie made me feel like she completely understood, absolutely cared, and wasn't going to let us down. And she didn't let us down. She was amazing. I felt like I had an ally. I did have an ally. I could not possibly thank her enough.