“It is not your birthday.”
She looked at me as though I had missed something obvious.
“They’re for Nurse Angela.”
“It isn’t Angela’s birthday either.”
“It is next week.”
“How do you know?”
“I asked.”
Martha shrugged.
“Nobody should have to work on their birthday without getting a card.”
Angela cried when Martha gave it to her.
A month later, Martha learned that Mr. Howard, one of the hospital custodians, had a granddaughter who loved dinosaurs.
The following afternoon, Martha insisted on giving him her favorite dinosaur sticker.
“You don’t need to give that away,” I told her.
“I have lots.”
She pressed it into his hand.
“Now your granddaughter has one too.”
Mr. Howard carried the sticker inside his work badge for months.
Every Tuesday morning, Johnny, the hospital security guard, pretended he had forgotten how to operate the electronic doors.
“Oh no,” he would say dramatically. “I suppose I’m trapped.”
Martha rolled her eyes.
“You forgot again, Johnny?”
“I’m afraid so, Little Miss.”
She proudly scanned his badge across the reader.
“There. You’re rescued.”
Johnny saluted her.
“My hero.”
Martha loved that game.
I believed it happened naturally.
I never questioned why Johnny seemed to forget only on Tuesdays.
The cafeteria workers remembered that Martha hated peas but loved strawberries.
Whenever strawberries appeared on the dessert menu, an extra bowl somehow reached her tray.
One rainy afternoon, Martha leaned close to me.
“I think the cooks like me.”
“I’m fairly certain they do.”
She smiled proudly.
“I like them too.”
As the months passed, I became so focused on treatment schedules and blood counts that I stopped noticing the smaller things.
The colorful bandages instead of plain white ones.
The nurses wearing ridiculous socks covered with ducks, dinosaurs, or superheroes.
The child-life specialist appearing with bubbles moments before a frightening procedure.
The pharmacist placing a tiny joke inside Martha’s medication bag.
I assumed they were simply wonderful people.
I never imagined how carefully those moments were being planned.
