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Sometimes A Thousand Words Just Ain't Enough
What DO we see here?
Well, we see perspiration... no, let's make that hard work-induced SWEAT... on her brow. And yet she doesn't seem to be expressing any discomfort. For that matter, she doesn't seem to be evidencing any thought regarding herself whatsoever.
We can see that she is apparently 100% devoid of any cosmetic make-up. No eye liner or shadow, no lipstick, no eyebrow touch-up, nothing -- and yet she is beautiful beyond words.
Her hair hasn't felt a brush or comb for awhile, suggesting that she has been at some duty for quite some time; and yet again, the selfless countenance we see here suggests that if someone should happen to mention the disheveled state of her hair, she'd likely only wonder about that person's grasp of what is real and what is not.
She's wearing a rubber glove, and you can just bet that it's out of consideration for the well-being of her patient and not that she wouldn't prefer to hold that patient's hand without that protective barrier.
They're in an airplane that looks to be crowded (note the stretcher suspended above her patient) and probably a bit noisy, so she's put ear plugs in his ears, but probably not hers. She's an airborne nurse who is seeing casualties direct from the combat theater (Afghanistan in this case) to more sophisticated medical facility (Germany in this case), so she gets the freshly wounded. Note this soldier still has bloody fingers.
She's a Captain, which suggests she probably could have opted for the clean, white, quiet and far less dangerous duty at a hospital in some safe country; and yet she flies out to get the seriously wounded.
She's speaking to her patient, and it doesn't take a narrator to tell us that the volume she is speaking in is only loud enough for her patient to hear over the din of the aircraft engines, and that the tone is soft, and her breath is warm on his face. It's the loving, comforting, reassuring words of healing that the quintessential Mother would coo -- "Everything is going to be allllll-right." Likewise, the other gloved hand is barely visible, but you just know it is touching some part of her patient's face or head that isn't injured. The touch that reassures and communicates volumes.
There's just the hint of a smile on her face, but it's not a smile of humor, nor of any jocular sense. It's the smile of kindness. You can hear whether a person is smiling even over the phone and chances are, from the looks of this troop, his eyes would appear to be shut and it looks like he is tubed, so that wouldn't be a smile in response to any two-way banter. It's her loving character showing through as she speaks, or sings, to him... softly.
But most telling are those proverbial 'Windows to the Soul' -- THOSE EYES. Those tired, seen-too-much, jaded but loving eyes.
Only Mothers and Nurses have those eyes, and the eyes tell it all. Absolute selflessness. Absolute loving concern for whom those eyes are caressing. These are the eyes of agape' love. A love that is freely given without expectation of return. A parent's love, totally devoid of qualification. Pure, selfless love, concern and tenderness. Absolutely beautiful.
The nurse featured in this shamelessly gushing 'Tribute to Nurses' is Capt. Kristen McCabe, USAF. You can read a great but all-too-brief write-up about her and her patient in the above photo here. And it is with great pleasure this little Nurse Tribute page is dedicated to one such angelic lifesaver known to many a 'Nam era Aviator and Grunt as "Big Dot." She's Dorothy "BD" Fullick, and she's everything as described above and a good deal more, especially when it comes to 'Carrier Landings.'
BD -- You own the heart of every banged-up GI you've ever caressed with those Nurse's Eyes of your own, and the heart of even those of us so unfortunate as to have not yet met you in the real. Lord love a nurse!
HERE-HERE!
CLINK!
GLUG!
SMASH! Hand salute to BD and to all your Nursing Sisterhood and Brotherhood!
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