Room 7, Third Floor

I work night shifts at a hospital. On Tuesday I was sitting with a patient who was not expected to make it through the night. Around 2am she opened her eyes and said there was someone in the corner of the room. I looked. There was no one. She was calm — calmer than I've seen a dying person be. She said, "He's telling me it doesn't hurt." I've sat with a lot of people at the end. There is usually fear, or confusion, or a kind of collapse inward. She had none of that. She looked like someone having a quiet conversation with an old friend. She passed at 4:17am. Her face looked like someone who had just finished a long trip home. I've thought about it every day since. I went into nursing because I believed in science and process and things you can measure. I still believe in those things. I just think there may be more on the other side of them than I previously allowed for.