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  • Angels on Earth magazine

    it’s all in the details

    Oct 25, 2019 4 minutes
    BY ROBERTA MESSNER, HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA
    ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA GODEASSI

    margie was my first patient as a home-based nurse. She was paralyzed from the neck down and terminally ill. Every evening I went to her house for a few hours of care. I bathed her, changed her linens and administered her medications, but I often wished I could do more for Margie herself.

    She can’t leave the house and has trouble speaking, I thought one December evening as I dried her after her bath. With no family in the area, she had few people in her life—mostly the ones she saw on TV. Just flickering images, I thought. More like background noise than people.

    I reached for a bottle

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