All heaven sighs and angels dance

I found out over the New Year's block that one of my patients from last month had passed away. She had been very sick with a known fatal disease and our goal had been to keep her alive until the family could arrange hospice care and then get her well enough to go home. After a couple of sleepless nights worrying whether she was going to make it, and some tireless work on the part of the day team, we succeeded in getting her out just before Christmas. Her pediatrician called us last week to say that she had spent her last day out at the park with her parents and her sister in the gorgeous sunshine (what I'm sure was a freak weather day for KC in the middle of winter), and then they took her home and held her while she slipped away. Even though we knew it was coming, it still hit me, in a really good way. To know that however small, I played a part in getting her home to spend her last days with her family. And to know that, even though we run around necessarily detached at times, that it's still a beautiful thing to be able to celebrate a life and to feel a little grief as well. Go with God, baby girl.