As I mentioned before, I volunteer as a Safety Rounder at one of the local hospitals, making sure that patients’ basic needs are taken care of while the nurses go about their general duties. Well, today, after caring for one of the patients, I asked him—an elderly, frail looking man—if there was anything else that I could get for him before I left the room to go on to the next patient. In one of the most feeble voices you can imagine, he asked me for a hug. That was the first time a patient has ever asked that of me. Now normally, I don’t touch the patients because it presents a liability issue, but this time, I made an exception—with permission from a nearby nurse, of course. That hug really set the tone for the rest of my volunteering shift this past evening. I was happy to do it, but at the same time, it made me feel a little sad. I know that sounds kind of weird, but I don’t really know how else to describe it.
