During a recent Transitional Care home visit with a patient who was recently discharged from the hospital, I was fortunate to hear this lovely story. As I spoke with my patient about her strength and her ability to walk, she shared a story about a recent shopping trip to Hannaford where she had some trouble. Hannaford is a very large store and it is difficult for her to walk around the entire store without sitting for a break. Her husband was elsewhere in the store and she didn't have the strength to go find him.
She had made it to the frozen food section and wasn't able to open the doors, she was very weak and thought she was going to collapse. She was able to sit on a nearby shelf when the "nicest woman came to help me, she is a nurse at the hospital. Her husband was there too helping me and her future daughter-in-law was there too, she works for Dr. R.". She went on to tell me how they did her grocery shopping for her, gathered up her husband and stayed with her until she could walk (she didn't want to come to the hospital). "They then got us home and helped us put away our groceries and stayed with us until we were ok. The future daughter in law made me an appointment with Dr. R. for the next day. They were absolutely wonderfully kind people and I wish I could write them a letter to thank them, but I don't know their names!"
Well, I knew from the start who these kind people were, Karen Edgerton RN, Steve Edgerton RN and Kathleen Tredtin RN, the future daughter in law of Steve and Karen (and they were not shopping together, just happened to be there at the same time!).
I sit next to Karen, I never heard her tell this amazing story. To me, not hearing about this from her is the sign of a true hero, she and her family just did what was right. They were not looking for praise they were being great humans. They are each great members of our RRMC team individually-and to hear this frail woman tell this story of what they did for her as a family was just one of the best stories I've heard!