Sadness Leads to Joy

It was the first week back after Christmas break. The amount of work was overwhelming for sure, but that was to be expected. It was a week to set out to be a typical first week, full of reorientations to clinical settings and a large amount of reading and lab work. I did expect the craziness of life, but there were a full unexpected things along the way.
Casey
Casey was a girl in our nursing progam, although I should say woman, since she was one of the returning adult students. I wasn't close friends with her or anything like that, but when you have a small group of 30 some nursing students, you know who everyone is, regardless if you hang out with them outside of class or not. Casey died this week in a tragic car accident. It was rough on everyone, since it was a death not expected. I felt so wierd about it when I first heard the news. Okay, she's in ICU, on a vent;the ICU is not a death sentence and people can be weaned off vents, but then we found out she was brain dead and was being kept on the vent so her organs could be donated. It seemed so surreal...I wasn't going to go to the ICU at first; I figured we weren't close friends, this should be time that her family spends with her, while she spends her final moments on earth. After talking to a group of friends though we decided to go and pay our respects to her and her family. I'm glad I went, it gave me some peace while trying to deal with the loss of a classmate. I was upset for being upset, but it makes me realize that any second could be the last, that is truly God that has control in all our lives, and how much school and the ridiculous pettiness that some people feel is overconsuming, is actually beyond the word of absurdity. I can't imagine anything more horrifying than losing a child, or a parent, or a loved one....Time really is too short...
Mr Shirley
I can honestly say I don't remember Mr.Shirley too well, or at least at first I didn't. I was going to pick up books from the nursing office one day this week and I was informed that there was a card for me. I was like huh? The only cards I get are usually from my mom and those come in my mailbox. This card was different though. It was from Mrs. Shirley, who was the wife of one of the paitents I took care of back in October. Apparently Mr.Shirley enjoyed the care that I gave him and couldn't stop talking about me untill the point that he went in multi-system organ failure and had to be transferred from a general floor to the MICU, according to his wife. It was bitter sweet. Here was a man who I couldn't remember and his wife took the time to write this beautiful letter...I actually was upset becasue I couldn't remember who he was untill after I looked through my clinical portifolio, and after dealing with one loss this week, another one was just as unexpected....The only thing I found a bit odd about it was that he died at the end of October and his wife wrote me a couple of days ago...but then again, sometimes we don't need the answers for everything we recieve....It truly humbles me...
It was a week that was crazy, more so than usual, but of everthing that went on it just keeps putting things into place. Even within moments of sadness there can be moments of joy. I think mourning can lead us to place where we meet an unexpected joy and an unexpected love, that we didn't know.