I would like to nominate Brandae from the Progressive Care Unit at the Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital for her excellent service and heartfelt compassion while my husband was in her care. We had already been basically living in the hospital in shifts for two weeks, and my husband was unconscious with a very grim prognosis. We were fighting for his life and the chance to bring him home on home health care, hoping that, with time, he might wake up again. We knew it was a "one-in-a-million chance" as one doctor had told us, but we were clinging to that chance with everything we had. Staying in the hospital was not a long-term solution, and putting him in a nursing home was not an option. We decided we wanted to bring him home with us and take on his 24/7, every-two-hour, very intensive care, including managing a trach and a feeding tube. Doctors and nurses alike talked with us- warned us- about what that would be like, if he even lived long enough and could be stable enough to transport him home. We understood that they were trying to look out for us. But we had decided, and it was in those blurry days of realizing that we had to leave the hospital and that our best option was to bring him home, that I met Brandae.

I hope the details of the context are enough to convey the emotion of the experience, but in case they are not, let me tell you, I was terrified. Desperate. Panicking on the inside but trying to keep it together while I cared for children at home and came every moment I could to the hospital to be with my husband and get a crash course in nursing before I would take on this enormous task myself. Everyone was kind, and several even taught me what I'd need to rotate him and suction his trach and care for his wounds. But Brandae was different. Every time she came into the room with her fun scrubs and huge, lively earrings, I felt alive again. It was more than her clothes- her energy was authentic and grounding and I felt seen and cared about as a wife just as lovingly as she cared for my husband. When she learned we wanted to bring him home, she looked me in the eyes and said to me, "You can do it," and for the first time, I really believed I could.

In the end, we did bring my husband home, on hospice. Thanks to all Brandae taught me, and more importantly, because of the strength she gave my heart, we were able to care for him there until he passed in peace, surrounded by his family, a cool summer breeze able to reach him as he took his last breaths. This meant everything to us, and I think it was the best way possible that my husband could have died. Brandae gave that peace to my whole family because she gave that confidence to me. Later, I found out that she was still completing her nursing training, but that is clearly just a formality, because Brandae is a nurse, by calling, a true nurse in her heart and soul, and one of the very best in all the land. I know- I've seen more than my share. I want to tell her, woman to woman: thank you and I love you and I pray for blessings on you and your son.