by Amber Lundman

Created on: April 14, 2008

"My Grandmother's Angel"

The phone is ringing as soon as I walk in the door. It's my dad. I need to get to the hospital as soon as I can. My grandmother has been sick for a long time now. She has fought so hard for so many years with emphysema. I know this will be the last chance I have to tell her I love her.

I arrive at the hospital and find everyone already there saying their goodbyes. I look at her lying in the bed so frail. She is sleeping and isn't breathing on her own anymore. I don't expect her to wake up. I know she's ready to go. I walk over to the bed and whisper in her ear, "Grandma, it's Amber. I love you so much and I know you have fought so hard. I know you are ready to go home now. We are all here grandma. We will miss you so much."

A couple of hours pass as everyone says their goodbyes. The nurse comes in to check on her. She's a different nurse than the one who has been coming in. I just assume there was a shift change. She is very beautiful and talks so sweet. I notice her name tag. It has Mary written on it. She lets us know my grandmother is barley hanging on now. My dad asks her if we can go ahead and take the oxygen mask off. The nurse assures him it is okay. "But," the nurse speaks up, "before you do how about we all pray." "Wow," I thought to myself. Is this normal? Do nurses usually pray with families right before they let a loved one go? I thought it was great and made it a little easier.

After we prayed we removed the oxygen mask and it was only a couple of minutes before my grandmother was gone. I looked up through my teary eyes and noticed nurse Mary was no longer in the room with us. My dad walks out to see if he can find her. He walks around for a bit to see if he can locate her. After the searching for a few minutes he goes to the nurses station and asks the lady if she can find nurse Mary for him. The lady looks at him and says, "Sir, we don't have any nurse by the name of Mary on any shift." My dad looks at her a little confused and lets her know there was a nurse Mary that was just in the room with us. The lady at the desk looks at him and really doesn't know what to tell him. "Well," my dad says, "I just wanted to thank her for praying with us." Then he walks back to the room. We all knew there was something about nurse Mary when she walked in the room. I know she was my grandmother's angel.

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