Sarah was the nurse assigned to my mom’s care when she arrived in the ICU after open-heart surgery. She was calm, competent, and was talking us through everything she was doing and what to expect next. She identified right away that my mom didn’t seem to be moving her right arm and leg the same as the left and wasn’t responding to commands as expected.

Over the course of the next 24 hours, as anesthesia subsided, it became apparent that my mom wasn't performing as neurologically expected. The doctor confirmed that it was most likely that she had suffered a stroke affecting her cognition and speech. I was devastated, in that moment I felt like I had just lost my mother. She was alive, but not the person who went into surgery.

Sarah responded to an alarm in our room; she wasn't even our assigned nurse that day. But she stayed, expressed her condolences, and acknowledged my grief. She didn't minimize the situation or try to suppress our fears with optimism. She simply said," This is never what we want or expect going into it, and I’m so sorry." She answered all my questions. She acknowledged that there's really nothing to do about it under the circumstances, and that's tough. She responded to my life-changing moment in the most perfect way possible. She was exactly what I needed in that moment, and I’m ever so grateful she was there.

There's a quote from Maya Angelo, "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.” I don’t even know Sarah's last name, but I'll never forget how her perfect kindness made me feel that day.