Dead woman walking

My mom has been a nurse for about 25yrs now. She first started out being a LPN and then she saved enough money to go back to college and get her RN degree. :) I'm very proud of her for doing this because she wasn't a spring chicken but she proved no matter how old you are you CAN go back to school and learn new things. She was already a grandma when she went back to be a RN.

I can't remember where exactly this particular short story took place but I believe it was in Iowa so she would have just finished her RN and was working in a nursing home.

My mom loves old people and she loves working in the nursing homes because some of them aren't so great and she wants to bring a smile to the elderly. She use to get in trouble for spending too much time with her patients which irritated her because she felt if she ever is in a nursing home she would want a nurse exactly like her! I can't tell you how many times she just sat with a dying patient just so they wouldn't die alone. That's a damn fine nurse, although I AM prejudiced. :)

Well mom was working one day in this 2 story, or maybe it was 3 story I really don't remember, nursing home. She had just gotten off on the 2nd floor and saw a patient walking down the hallway. The woman raised her hand and waved at my mom. Mom, of course, put on her smile and waved back at the woman and then went on to take care of the patients she had to for that floor.

After taking care of those patients she went back down to the 1st level and was talking with another nurse and how she had just saw Mrs. So-and-so and how she had waved back to her. That nurse looked at her and asked it was who my mom had seen again. My mom said, "You know, Mrs. so-and -so on the 2nd floor?" The nurse looked at my mom and simply said, "You must have been mistaken. Mrs so-and-so died last night." My mom just looked at the other nurse, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "Yep, I must have been mistaken."

My mother knew she wasn't mistaken but she will never forget that Mrs. so-and-so took the time to wave good-bye to her.