A letter to Meghan Duplantis:
My father was a patient of yours and I hope you remember him.
It has taken me months to write to you, and I have wanted to for so long now. I'm still so unsure of how to properly convey what is in my heart. I want you to know how much of an angel you were to me throughout his stay. Your care and concern for him was everything I could have hoped for and about a million times more than that. I remember talking to you after he gave you the ok to contact me again (he told the staff there "no" when asked if they could contact me with updates about a week into his stay), and you told me how relieved you were that he had given the ok for me to be contacted. You told me that you treated him, and all of your other patients, as if they were your own parent. You said you knew the heartache involved with the families not being able to be there. And in my dad's case, him not even wanting to Skype. The day before he passed away, you found his absolute favorite ice cream, bananas foster, and stored it there at the hospital for him. He wasn't eating, and that's all he wanted. You were so excited to get him to eat it. You joked with him about being a Falcons fan. I can only imagine the other little moments like that, and I know that is what led to his decision to refuse hospice. He stated he wanted to stay at your hospital because he was pleased with his care. My dad never handed out compliments easily, so when he said that to me, I knew you had to be something special. I know there were other Nurses and Doctors taking excellent care of him.
I cannot imagine what these months have been like for you. Watching people suffer and doing it alone. Having to deliver bad news, sad updates, etc. I have prayed for you daily since the first time you called me. You scored so many little wins with dad. You helped me by treating him with tremendous respect. You helped me by figuring out how to get him to eat. You got him to smile. You helped me by being in consistent contact with me. It haunts me that he passed away without family. The only thing that makes that any less painful is knowing that he was with you for some portion of his last day, and I knew you took care of him as best you could. You were 100% direct and upfront with me about anything and everything, including the difficult decisions he made about his care.
My daughter plans to pursue Nursing once she graduates. We have started to look at colleges with great nursing programs. She's wanted to be in the medical field in some way since she was about four years old. If she has even half of the amazing bedside manner, compassion, and spirit for her job as you do then I know she'll be an amazing nurse. I want her to be just like you, and I've told her that.
I know this is jumping around everywhere - for that, I apologize! COVID is so cruel. I truly hope that you have been able to remain healthy.
Thank you for being so amazing to my dad, to me, and to my husband, whom I seem to recall you speaking with a couple of times when I was struggling to process your words and my feelings. I am eternally grateful for you. I wish you the absolute best.