Mom, I’m proud of you.

Again and again I would call my mom while she was at working begging asking for her to come home. She worked second shift as a nurse for much of my childhood. I had the hospital’s number memorized and conversation always went the same.

Now that I’m a mother myself, I can only imagine how difficult it was to receive those phone calls from me. My mom was working hard to help her patients and there I was crying on the other end of the phone.

Last week my mom retired from her career as a nurse. She spent her entire adult life diligently serving others. She can still remember horrific emergency room scenes. She helped hundreds of people as she staffed the second floor of our local hospital. Eventually, she moved to the oncology department where her bedside manner had a real opportunity to shine.

Mom, if I could make that phone call to the hospital one last time, I would do it a bit differently…

Hello. How can I help you?

Second floor nurses’ station please.

One moment.

Hello, this is the nurses’ station.

Hello. Is Lila available?

Yes, let me get her.

Hello. This is Lila.

Hi, Mom. It’s me. I’m just calling to say…

I am so proud of you.

You have been an amazing example to me. You showed me that it was possible to have a career and be an amazing mom. You taught me that I can be an intelligent, passionate, and compassionate woman.

Your skills as a nurse have come in handy thousands of times as I have come to you concerned about my health or the health of my children. You taught me some basic nursing and mothering skills that I now use with Grace and Noah. Thank you, for passing on your wisdom.

Now that I’m older, I appreciate so much more that your job helped make my life better. I understand bills, loans, and mortgages. Thank you, for the time that you put in to help meet my needs, provide a college education, and marry me off in style.

You were a great roll model to me and you helped provide for me, but above all of that… Mom, you were Jesus’s hands and feet. When you transferred to the oncology department and started walking with people as they battled cancer, you were literally saving lives.

You witnessed to people in their deepest and darkest times. You held their hands and remembered them in prayer. You. were. amazing.

And now that chapter of your life is closing. How do you stop being a nurse after 40+ years? How do you let go of saving lives everyday? Where do you go from here?

I don’t know, but I do know that this isn’t the end of you being Jesus’s hands and feet here on Earth. God still has big plans for you. You will continue to be amazing and when you reach heaven’s gate God will surely smile down on you and say…

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

I love you, Mom.

‘I was hungry. And you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty. And you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger. And you invited me in. I needed clothes. And you gave them to me. I was sick. And you took care of me. I was in prison. And you came to visit me.’

Then the people who have done what is right will answer him. ‘Lord,’ they will ask, ‘when did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in? When did we see you needing clothes and give them to you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘What I’m about to tell you is true. Anything you did for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25: 35-40