Making them feel comfortable

It has taken me several weeks to think about how to write this post.  As it so often happens in this line of work, I  have experienced recently the death of a resident to whom I had grown attached.  She was a very sweet woman who always had a huge smile on her face. She lived on a hall that I had only worked a few times, but every time she saw me she would come up and give me a big hug and let me know how much she appreciated the work that I do.  I remember one day she saw me in the dining room and actually followed me to a hall on the other side of the facility just to give me a hug.  On the weekends when things were all caught up and slow, I would keep her company in her room as we watched TV or just talked. She would tell me about wen she was growing up sometimes but most of the time she couldn't remember much of anything so she would ask me about my family, work, and life in general. Our moments together not only helped the time pass quickly, but they reminded me of why I love my job. Its helping people that makes this career worth while.
On the day my friend left this life, I was in an in-service meeting for the nursing staff. As we left the meeting, I saw her being wheeled away on a gurney. I looked at her face and knew she was hurting. I told her I loved her and that I would see her soon. She smiled. It wasn't until the next morning that I found out that she had passed. As I began to tear up over the loss of my friend, my supervisor reminded me of something. She said to me, "We are not here so that we can make them better. Our goal is to make them comfortable. If you did that for her in her last days on Earth, then you did what was expected. We have others to help so we need to save our tears for a time when others are not counting on us to be strong."
As I type and reflect, I know that she was right. It is only now, a month after my friends passing that I am finally able to have some time to cry.  I only hope that our friendship was as comfortable for her as it was rewarding for me. I shall never forget her.