My Angel in White

The nursing occupation, it’s hard all right!!!  From a mother’s observations, translated…

The night is deep, with the raging rains and howling wind outside, the powerful typhoon draped over southern Taiwan; the cries of the wind, broke the quieted night, the roads, attacked by the flooding rain, I can’t even see the roads anymore.  I’d started, panicking, because my daughter gets off at midnight.

illustration from the papers online…

During those two days, there were, two typhoons that hit southern Taiwan one right after the other, although the government’s announced that schools and work are off, but my daughter still made it out to her shifts, as her mother, I’d wanted to tell her, “With the rain and the wind, please stay in.”  But, as the words got to my lips, they’d become, this gentle sigh, my husband had, driven my daughter to around from work in the storms, and he’d not spoken a word of worries to her, fearing that it may affect her moods.

My daughter is a nurse.

That year, she just graduated from middle school, told us she wanted to go into nursing, being surprised, I wouldn’t agree, because this was, a difficult path.  I know, that this, is a noble job, saving lives, but I couldn’t, feel at ease.  This sacred work, because of the matters of the job requirements, the workers would be on shifts continuously!  Seeing how my daughter’s made up her mind, in the end, I can only, accept her choice, told her, that she can’t quit half way because the work’s too hard; that not only because of how important this job is, more that it was because it was, her choice, I wouldn’t want her to become an escapee from the nursing fields.

In her five years of study, she’d had a hard time, getting through it all.  The very first internship at the hospital, the very first time she went into the O.R., it’d impacted her so, as a mother, I can only be, her strong backup support system, giving her boosters.  Later she’d transferred to the various hospitals, the various departments, she’d still, bitten down hard and weathered through it all, and successfully gotten certified, putting the perfect ending, to studying nursing; and the schooling she’d received afterwards, it’d made us see how much she’d grown, how hard she’d, worked, and, upon entering into the workforce, that was, another different kind of a test for her.

the nurses, not the easiest job in the world that’s for certain!!!  Photo from online…

Once, we’d asked her to take a leave of absence because of her health or the weather, but she’d never gone according to our wishes, because in the shifts, if she doesn’t go to the hospital, the one working couldn’t take off.  She’d told me, “Mom, if I’m the person who’d worked for eight, nine hours on end, and still have to take the shifts, you can imagine, how I would feel?”  For the patients suffering, for those working alongside her, helping to cure the illnesses, this was the price she must pay.  I’d recalled awhile back, my daughter couldn’t work because of a car wreck, her coworkers, without another word, took up the shifts for her, this sort of a compassion, I’m sure, that my daughter had, taken to heart!

The night is deeper now, nothing but black outside, the shops were all closed already.  It’s midnight, my husband went out in the raging storms, to pick up my daughter, I stood by the window, watching the wind and rain attacked the roads, and from time to time, there would be, headlights, speeding by, I imagine, they’re all people who needed to head outside for needed reasons!

That familiar headlight slowly approached, stopped, and, my heart that was in the air, settled down too, the two of them had, arrived home.  Seeing how with a fatigued look, with her clothes all wet, I’d felt, a bit, muffled.

My own angel in white, you’d, worked very hard; all those angels in white, you’d all worked, very hard.

So, this, is the requirements of the nursing staff, they are still on duty even when the rest of the public can take days off from the typhoons or adverse weather conditions, because that is the nature of their work, and, this young woman had CHOSEN her path as a nurse, and, took the needed responsibilities of her work duties, she’s taking the responsibilities for her own life.