Kindness Has Real Staying Power

(After avoiding any kind of surgery for the 35 years of my life I end up in the ER on Monday with appendicitis. I am very, very scared because of the aforementioned lack of surgeries. One of my roommates comes with me and intends to stay with me all night.)

Nurse: “We like people to go home and not stay here all night. It’s not comfortable.”

Roommate: “That’s okay. I want to stay.”

Nurse: “Well, in a shared room you have to get the permission of the person in the other room.”

Roommate: “Well, then, ask them. I want to stay.”

Other Person: “Let her stay! If I had someone here with me I’d want them to stay.”

(I was so out of it, and so scared, but the other person, also there with appendicitis, was so kind to let my roommate stay with me and it helped a lot. My roommate literally held my hand all night so every time I woke up I could feel it. If she hadn’t been there I think I’d have been inconsolable. I’m healing fine, and the other person in my room was able to go home without needing surgery at all!)