Heart or stone?

That day, I arrived at the hospital dizzy from the smell of bleach. I was assigned to the ward where life begins… and sometimes barely breathes.

It wasn’t unusual to see births, C-sections, and the occasional emergency. But that afternoon, I witnessed both faces of humanity.

A young woman came in, ready for her C-section. Sweet, humble, uneducated—many doctors grew impatient with her slow, hesitant answers. Only one spoke to her gently. That made her smile.

We nurses treated her with care. To her, we were all doctors. We never corrected her. Why would we?

That angel, alone and about to bring another into the world, saw us as her family. And in that moment, we were.