I came on duty at 7:30 am. I was assigned two patients to care for the next 8 hours. One of the patients was well enough to move to the surgery floor some time today.

My other patient was a young man of 19. He had been riding his motorcycle the night before and motorist ran a stop sign and broadsided him. His injuries, most of them minor, was mainly his head and face. The accident broke his jaw. His jaws were wired shut and he had a trachestomy to help keep his airway open.

His eyes spoke of fear and being anxious due to the inablility to talk. I explained why he could not talk. He seemed to understand. Such a nice person to have this happen to him. His jaws would be wired for weeks until they healed. His father and sister came in to visit him, his sister started crying. Her father led her back to the waiting room. He came back in to finish his time of the visitation. I went over to him and explained what would be going on for his son. He was thankful and then talked with his son. I gave the patient a writing pad and pencil so he could write out what he wanted to say.
The next day my patient smiled when I came on. His father soon arrived. I let him stay a few extra minutes to visit while I took care of my other patient. After the visit, I told his father that his son would be moving out to the surgery floor. He came over to the nurse's station and asked if I would go out to dinner with him after work. I told him that I had other plans with friends. I told him that if he wanted to, he could join us that night at 8:00.

During the rest of the day, I did my duties at the bedside of my patients. I asked my patient why his mother never visited. He wrote that his mother was dead. I told him that his father had asked me out for that night. He wrote "go for it".
His father joined us later that night. We wined and dined and danced the night away. He then asked if we could go to a movie the next night. I said "Yes"

His son moved out to a regular floor sometime during the night. I went out with his father that night to the movies. We went to dinner before the movies. He said " I am single and I would love it if you would continue to see me. I told my son that when I saw you, that I wanted to marry you" Whew! I told him that I was dating three other men and I wasn't ready to marry again. Well we went out every night for weeks (31/2 ). I finally told him that I would marry him just to get some rest from going out all the time.

I had my first date with him on Oct 11,1975 and married him on Nov. 14, 1975. This is my favorite nurse's story. We are still married and love each other more each day. Every one at work said they would give us 6 months. Well in Nov. we have been married for 28 wonderful years........some 6 months huh!