Kendra had been the nurse for a patient for three days leading up to the day family was withdrawing care. The wife had noticed the first day Kendra took care of her husband that she had on a mustard seed necklace and cried when she noticed it, and even later, could not go into detail about the conversations she and Kendra had about the necklace because it would make her cry too much. The wife expressed how meaningful those conversations were to her during this time. These conversations made her husband's end of life choices easier to make and she couldn't thank her enough.
Kendra came in on her day off the day life support for this patient was to end. Kendra told the wife that she happened to come across an extra mustard seed necklace and gave this necklace to the wife of the patient. The wife said she would hold this necklace in one hand and her husband's hand with her other hand when all the machines would be turned off. She said she had no way of really expressing how thankful she was of Kendra and her kindness.
Kendra had been on a FMLA for surgery after this day. When Kendra came back to work she was told what the wife and family had to say about her and thanked her for the care she gave. Kendra was asked what the mustard seed conversations were about because the wife said she couldn't speak about it without getting too emotional.
Kendra said the wife cried when she saw Kendra's necklace and told Kendra that her husband had bought her a mustard seed necklace when they were first married. A year ago the necklace broke and it was lost. The husband had promised her he would get her a new one as soon as they could. Money had been tight because the patient had been in and out of the hospital all year. The wife told Kendra the husband would be heartbroken that he could not fulfill his promise he had made to her. She expressed that he always kept his promises, and this would break his heart.
Kendra came in on her day off to give the patient her mustard seed necklace and told the wife she found an extra one just laying around. Kendra felt the wife needed it more than she did. She told the wife to take it and this way he wasn't breaking his promise to her.
After her husband passed away the wife felt she had a calling to go into healthcare. She applied at the hospital as a nurse tech on the same unit and said that because of Kendra's kind heart she knew she needed to work in healthcare in order to give back. Because of Kendra's kind act, she planted a seed in someone else to become a healthcare worker.