"Tessa had R.G. in such good spirits despite the dire situation. l couldn't believe his sense of optimism," said his brother M.G., who had selected R.G. as best man in his wedding four decades earlier. "R.G. was so cheerful and vivacious the day of our visit, I just wanted to take his hand and walk him out of that hospital."
How do you get a man who had already suffered three Code 4 events in good spirits?
Tessa talked about the future ... and she learned quickly that R.G. loved to laugh. So, she made sure everyone else laughed as they entered his room.
Once Tessa found out the "G" brothers were a bunch of farm boys, she began telling her own zany stories of visiting her uncle's farm as a young girl. Faces lit up when hearing about her tales working with a little Brahman bull calf. We still listen to the audio clip of R.G. retelling Tessa's story from his hospital bed. He laughed and laughed and laughed ... all this despite long odds of surgical success.
"What an uplifting spirit! She was exactly what the doctor ordered at a time when our family needed to be uplifted the most," added R.G.s brother A.G. "We all knew what we were dealing with, and Tessa was that SMILE who walked into the room every time," said A.G., who made the four-hour round trip on a number of occasions to visit R.G.
It just may have been that laughter served up by Tessa that even got him to the surgical room.
"Then came the longest day of our lives. After some delays going to the operating room between 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., R.G. was quickly hurried away at 6:18 a.m.
That was the last time we ever heard R.G. talk.
Then the hours slowly ticked by: 7:18 a.m., 8:18, 9:18, 10:18, 11:18, 12:18 p.m., 1:18, 2:18, and 3:18 p.m.
That's when Tessa was about to come back on shift.
Instead of going immediately to the 8th floor, she arrived at the hospital early that day and found R.G.s family still in the patient waiting room. After nine hours, everyone was a frazzled mess. After all, heart transplant surgery takes about eight hours.
Tessa asked what we knew. After telling her that we've been told the surgery is still 'progressing as normal,' she said, 'Believe that'.
That was so comforting given we had not been in contact with a soul we met from Aurora St. Luke's the first six days before the surgery during the previous nine hours.
Throughout the ensuing postsurgical days, Tessa often checked on R.G. and his family. She went far beyond the call of duty to not only care for him, but for all of us."
Five months after his passing, R.G.'s sibling gathered on the night of what would have been his 70th birthday. In addition to sharing stories of how R.G. impacted our lives, the family shared stories of Nurse Tessa because they all remember how she made them feel on the final days of R.G.s earthly life. She brought R.G.'s laugh to life.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel," Maya Angelou.