On Wednesday, my wife L and I had to make the very difficult decision of choosing between two no-win alternatives in regard to dealing with L's deadly cancer diagnosis.

1) We could attempt to complete a very aggressive 6-month chemo therapy program, trying to reduce the size of her abdominal tumor for possible surgery.

2) We could surrender and not fight this very aggressive, fast growing, rare sarcoma cancer that was growing steadily inside her body; and enroll in Good Samaritan's Hospice care program - hopeful that this choice would allow L some quality of life for the time she had remaining. It was L's life and her decision. She decided she had no reasonable chance of being physically able to survive six months of chemo - with only a 1 in 5 chance of success. She chose Hospice. I, sobbingly, agreed with her decision; as did her Good Samaritan oncologist, Dr. C. We began our month-long Hospice journey.

Nurse Charlotte was assigned as L's primary care-giver. Charlotte was a "big hit" with both of us from the very start. Her tender bedside manner and her obvious caring personality made L feel - to the extent possible in her situation - at ease and comfortable. Besides doing her normal nursing duties of checking L's vitals and explaining what drugs were going to be used and their proper dosages to me, Charlotte also regularly added her own special personal touches of humanity to every visit. She was obviously trying her best to make this agonizing journey toward L's death a little less gruesome and difficult for us.

On our 36th wedding anniversary, Charlotte brought us an anniversary gift package: a nice 4x6 picture frame with a special happy anniversary message inside, and she also had both of our actual fingerprints (that she requested from us the day before) in the frame, and she placed them together to form the shape of a Heart. She also brought Hershey candy kisses, a giant cookie, and a couple of other items. This was over and beyond the call of duty. Both L and I were brought to tears by Charlotte's thoughtfulness and kindness. On more than one occasion, Charlotte was not able to make it to our home until well after a normal quitting time, often times pulling into our driveway after 6 p.m. She also made it clear that I could call her at the Hospice number any hour of the day or night, if I needed help or advise.

On the days Charlotte did not visit us, she usually called to see how both L and I were doing that day. She was a special Angel Nurse for us. In my judgement, Nurse Charlotte meets all the criteria listed on the DAISY Award Nomination form.

P.S. All other Hospice personnel that came into our home were also top-notch caring professionals.