Heroes

This morning the dawn arrived with cold, grey skies and snow...much snow..and wind...much wind. We were expecting this and I actually was up, dressed and ready to head out for the hospital with my faithful, loving companion and driver with nerves of steel. We do not have 4 wheel drive. I must give credit to my car..my 11yr. old car that has seen me to and from work in the worst of weather not boasting anything spectacular except dependability. And I'll take that. The driveway was not plowed, snowblowed, or shoveled, but we drove through it and up the road, down the winding byway that had zero visibility in some areas. We were careful to go slow. Slow but steady. We arrived in town to roads also not yet touched by a plow and stopped to help a motorist who had slid into a ditch. We had to take a few detours but made it to the hospital in time for my 7am shift. Jack drove on to his office to see if any patients would need an adjustment after shoveling all that mess! I arrived to see how many of my coworkers made the trek. Almost all arrived safe and sound. All had stories like ours, of helping others stuck, or in some way distressed. Some of the girls live 30-40min. away. The roads were bad. Their lives were really in danger. So why do we do it? Why do we feel the need to push ourselves on a morning that keeps school buses off roads so children will not be hurt, schools to close, businesses to shut down? Why do policemen, firemen, city workers who drive those plows, doctors, nurses, feel the need to get to work on time. Money? Prestige? Pats on the back? No. I would say the word of the day could be "responsibility"...or maybe it's hero. I'm certainly not putting myself in that category by all means. But as I watched my coworkers trudge on in, cold, wet from the snow, some limping because they fell on the walk from the employee lot that's 1/4 mile from the hospital, red cheeked, most smiling and grateful they made it because they knew all our patients would make it in, I had to feel respect. We are the same people that wanted to choke each other in the last few weeks because of being overworked, tired, hassled by the expectations and stress that this job offers. But like any dysfunctional family...and that's really what we are..a family, we pull together when the chips are down. Everyone doing what they can to make the day better, to help our patients who are scared, hurting, and looking to us to make it all better. Doing the extra work for those that couldn't make it in, and not complaining, just doing. Doing a job that we love and sometimes hate. But today I was proud of my coworkers. Probably next week we'll be back to wanting to choke each other again, but for today..they were heroes.