One last shift change

I walked to my friend Dianna from our chaplaincy office on the edge of the Emergency Department out to triage. It was the end of her last shift as a chaplain. She’s retiring.

She’d been up all night. A couple of deaths. She talked with families, talked with nurses, completed the paperwork of death. A couple of other crises that were, for families, resulting in phone calls. “Mom’s here again.” “Dad’s moving to intensive care.

She cleaned out her drawer, all except for her badge. She fin...