Reilly Nurse.

Sometimes, I wonder.
I take a breath for comparison and ask whether I'm doing a good job.
I wonder what I could do better, or different, or even worse.
I got to be there in the room where so many had gone before.
I fill some pretty big shoes, walking in hallowed footsteps here.
Fourth generation nurse at this hospital, I just got to help care for the fourth generation of my family...
These are the things roots are made of.
Sometimes I walk by the pictures of my great-grandmother and great-aunt that peer out from the wall downstairs- both president of their class here in the days when the nursing students lived in the old nuns' dorm across the street. I look into their bright faces and smile back with the same cheeks and wonder whether they'd be proud of me.
Whether they would make the same decisions I do.
I hope that: bolstered by innovation and technology, research and professionalism that improve my understanding of the human response to disease... That I am taking the same careful care of bodies and souls and hearts and families as they did.
I imagine that: when they were sitting where I sit, monitoring signs and easing symptoms, that nurses still complained about staffing, rolled their eyes at administrative policies, and shared stories and pictures of their children.
I am so thankful to hear the same cries of joy and relief and sorrow that they did, and to make a life in their legacy.