One nurse, Lisa, left an indelible mark on our lives with her remarkable ability to attend to the daily myriad medical needs of our daughter during her hospitalization, while simultaneously encouraging us to create the space for our enjoyment of our daughter.

In our family, we refer to Lisa as “A’s Second Mama.” This is because during the highly traumatic months of having our daughter in the NICU, because of Lisa, we came to understand that because of her diagnosis, we could not expect her to be treated like other babies. However, and to our surprise, we found in the NICU a professional who skillfully managed to care for a special baby with a seemingly hopeful diagnosis, with integrity, compassion, and outstanding competence.

We often wondered how she was able to consistently keep what seemed to us to be a one-sided conversation going with A as she cared for her. I remember Lisa explaining to me that A failed the hearing test. Despite this, however, Lisa kept up her conversations with A. Two years later, when our A reacts to a sound while at home, we remember the tireless efforts of her second Mama who chose to dignify her existence as a baby in need of the usual interactions all babies need.

We also remember Lisa making the time to discuss the possibility of making up our A’s hair into pigtails and then taking the time during her day to do just that. Lisa gave us a chance to see our sick baby as just another dressed up baby girl- something that had till then been a mere dream.