Walking around work recently I noticed a sudden new addition of plastic flowers in some of the winter lorn gardens. They weren't hard to miss, bright pink and yellow, they were planted in both pots and soil in this one particular area. I thought to myself it was a bit uncharacteristic of our neatly manicured flower beds.
Later that day I met one of the pediatric patients I'm caring for. It's always tough to have a young kid with a terminal disease at the hospice house. I learned however, that this is one incredible kid. He has been able to get up to a wheel chair from time to time and get out of the room. It was on one of these outings that he crossed paths with the patient in the room next door. The adult patient, having been pushed outside in her hospital bed, was heard lamenting that she may not be alive to see spring.
With that perfect sweetness that can come from a child, my little patient whispered to his parents, "We should get some flowers for her, so she'll be happy."
Thus, the fake flowers appeared. I smile at them daily, not just because they are the precursors for spring, but as a reminder of my little patient... though dying himself, he is unselfish enough to think of another's happiness.
