I had the privilege of having Kristina Littles as my preceptor when I started in the SICU in June. She challenged me every day, she constantly affirmed to me that she was in my corner, and that she wanted me to be the best nurse I could be, not only because I am capable, but because the veterans whom we serve deserve nothing less. Every day, Kristina would declare this mantra, and every single day in the unit she would go above and beyond to show all of our staff, nurses or not, that it was possible. I came to learn that Kristina's father was in the ICU of a neighboring hospital. If she did not disclose this information, you would never know she had such a burden on her heart. She would often share how her father expressed his gratitude for his nurses and felt extremely blessed to receive the care he had, and how she just wanted to do the same for her patients. Unfortunately, her father ended up passing in early November. Later that month, we had a young patient, who underwent a CABGx2. This veteran never became stable post-surgery. He had a very supportive family who was bedside as often as they could, specifically the veteran’s brother. The brother would come in everyday, appeared very worried, but was usually quiet. We were never assigned to this veteran, but you would never know. Every day, Kristina would either come in early, leave late, or forfeit her lunch just to become acquainted with the patient and his brother, offer help to the patient’s nurse, offer help to the brother, say a prayer, give a hug, and share her own experience having a family member in the hospital. Every day, I would watch the brother; speaking and sharing with Kristina was the highlight of his day, he would wait on her. I watched Kristina help him build hope and watched him open up, share his thoughts and feelings with Kristina, and express his gratitude towards her. Sadly, when the veteran passed, the brother left a message for Kristina. He thanked her for her encouragement, her warmth and compassion, and told her that he appreciated all she did for him and his brother. Kristina really demonstrated truly providing total care, including the caretakers. I consider it an absolute privilege to be able to recognize Kristina Littles for her amazing nursing skills. She encourages and motivates everyone she encounters to every day become better than they were the day before.