The best thank you letter you will read all day—maybe all year

Last updated on: October 20, 2016 at 10:25 am by Deacon Greg Kandra

The best thank you letter you will read all day—maybe all year 2016-10-20T10:25:36-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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This is starting to get more attention, and it should.

In the middle of Respect Life Month, this heartfelt letter from a husband to those who cared for his dying wife is a great testament itself to life—and a stirring and inspiring expression of gratitude. It shows care for the caregivers:

As I begin to tell my friends and family about the seven days you treated my wife, Laura Levis, in what turned out to be the last days of her young life, they stop me at about the 15th name that I recall. The list includes the doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists, social workers, even cleaning staff members who cared for her.

“How do you remember any of their names?” they ask.

How could I not, I respond.

Every single one of you treated Laura with such professionalism, and kindness, and dignity as she lay unconscious. When she needed shots, you apologized that it was going to hurt a little, whether or not she could hear. When you listened to her heart and lungs through your stethoscopes, and her gown began to slip, you pulled it up to respectfully cover her. You spread a blanket, not only when her body temperature needed regulating, but also when the room was just a little cold, and you thought she’d sleep more comfortably that way.

You cared so greatly for her parents, helping them climb into the room’s awkward recliner, fetching them fresh water almost by the hour, and by answering every one of their medical questions with incredible patience. My father-in-law, a doctor himself as you learned, felt he was involved in her care. I can’t tell you how important that was to him.

Then, there was how you treated me. How would I have found the strength to have made it through that week without you?

How many times did you walk into the room to find me sobbing, my head down, resting on her hand, and quietly go about your task, as if willing yourselves invisible? How many times did you help me set up the recliner as close as possible to her bedside, crawling into the mess of wires and tubes around her bed in order to swing her forward just a few feet?

You have to read it all. Share it. And then thank someone you know for the innumerable small gifts that honor and enrich and respect life.

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