Aufedersein Pet

The world is a cruel place to live in. I had a harsh reminder of this when we got back to the Queens a couple of nights ago. We were driving into the multi-storey car park and there was a man in a hooded coat loitering between some cars. When he saw us drive in he tried to look inconspicuous but it just didn’t work. It was clear why he was hanging around and we’d obviously disturbed him as when we walked down there he’d gone. But then this got me thinking of all the special people we have around us each and every day. Firstly we have our families; these people will usually try and help out in whatever way they can, in our case they have helped out so much with Tom and the other two we’d be lost without all of them. Then there are our neighbors; they help to watch over things while were away and keep the cat company. Another of our neighbors often will bring us a home cooked meal, which believe me when you live on sandwiches from Tesco or the hospital it is like someone giving you a lottery ticket. Then there are the friends that ring up regular just to see how you are and see if they can do anything to help. Finally there are the nurses that became our friends. There are some people that you meet in your life that make life better by just being there, they talk complete rubbish when you just need a distraction, they listen when you need to talk and they talk when you need to listen. They make things seem less harsh by just being themselves, like turning down the brightness on the TV. All of these people seem to work as nurses on the neonatal unit at the City, some more special than other but all very much amazing. I wrote in the past of a nurse that had cared for Danny and had left for Australia. There was another such nurse who, when she heard we were leaving, wrote us a letter and told us not to open it until we’d left. A couple of nights ago we read it and she’d written a letter for Danny. The letter told Danny who she was and how she had cared for Danny and that he should keep his “big eye’s smiling”. In the letter that she wrote to us it acknowledged how much we had been through already and some babies you carry with you and Danny will be one remembered for a few years. Such a simple letter has meant so much, when you go through as much stress and anguish as we have over the last 17 weeks it is nice to know that we are all not just another family passing through. There were other people who stood out above all the others, one such person was a man who’d recently been made a consultant. He became someone who we could talk to honestly and believe in what he was telling us because you could tell that he genuinely cared for Daniel and that made him so very special and we’ll always cherish the input he had. In Daniels case the doctors made up such a small part of his day to day life it was the nursing staff that gave him his overall care. I know that we will never forget what the nursing teams at the City did for us and more importantly that they gave Daniel the best start possible. So it is with a heavy heart we bid you a heart felt farewell and we thank you all for everything that you have done, we’ll never forget what you have done.