Cassie cared for my mom, Barbara Hill, during her last stay at Penn State Hampden. My mom has lung cancer that metastasized from 2020 duodenal cancer. She had five great years after her modified Whipple surgery. This year found her acutely short of breath and beginning to fill with pleural fluid. She had several admits from January through March. All care was pretty great. What my mom and I found that separated Cassie from the rest of the amazing nursing staff was her compassion. She not only provided outstanding nursing care but also took the time to sit and talk with her about her illness and where we were headed with Hospice care. They talked about life and my Mom’s feelings and the things that are sometimes really hard to talk about at these times in life. Those conversations really helped my mom mentally and spiritually, and helped to comfort her soul. Mom had been a pretty independent 87-year-old living in her own two-story home alone prior to becoming ill in January, so this has been a lot for us all to process. Knowing she had a nurse like Cassie was beyond comforting to us all. She would pop in and say hi even when Mom was moved from her floor and came to see her before the end of her shift the day before we moved Mom to Carolyn's Hospice House. To me, Cassie is the complete package and a nurse. She not only gives outstanding clinical care but also understands that mental and spiritual well-being is just as important in this kind of care situation, and the power of her compassionate touch and the extra time she took out of her day to provide it will not be forgotten by me or my family.