The Night Shift Nurse

I was hospitalized for a week following a serious infection. The nights were the hardest — the fear, the uncertainty, the darkness that comes at 3am in a hospital room. There was one nurse who worked the night shift, a quiet woman named Mae. She never said anything overtly religious. She just had something about her — a steadiness, a peace. On the worst night, when I was most frightened, she came in and sat on the edge of my bed and hummed softly for a few minutes. Just hummed. I fell asleep. In the morning I asked the charge nurse about Mae. She told me no one by that name worked on the floor. I have never been able to explain it.