Carolyn, one of the nurses at Marion’s nursing home, came over today to tell me about the child she was expecting. She has taught me a lot, just from observing her. She is tough, smart. She is cheerful, engaging. I am struck by her easy ability to talk to the Alzheimer’s and Dementia patients, to understand what they are saying, and draw their cooperation.
  I can’t express how impressed I am by she and the other nurses. They don’t make much money, and their work is tense, relentless, and surely, its own reward. I see patients shout at them, toss food, swing wildly, scream.
  But they do it, and cheerfully and lovingly. They care.
  “When you first came her, you were uncomfortable,” she said. “We noticed it, we talked about it. You stood stiffly, like ‘what’s going on?” But now, she said, you are comfortable. You are like us. I thanked her for that, it was better than a ribbon.

Marion and Izzy met in the hallway today.