Florence – Intensive Care Nurse
Florence
Age: 28
Occupation: Intensive Care Nurse
The funny thing is that people keep calling us heroes.
Heroes wear capes. Heroes save the world. Heroes don’t cry in supply closets because they have just spent twelve hours watching people struggle to breathe.
I am not a hero. I am a nurse.
When the pandemic began, none of us really knew what was coming. The wards filled up. Then they filled up again. We learned to work longer hours, sleep less, improvise more and somehow keep going.
Every day felt like a battle against something invisible. We lost patients. We lost colleagues. We lost any sense of normal time.
People applauded us from balconies. It was kind and appreciated. But what I remember most are the faces. The frightened faces behind masks. The exhausted faces of my co-workers. The faces of family members saying goodbye through screens.
There were moments when I thought I could not do another shift.
Then I did.
And the next day I did another one.
I suppose that is what nursing really is. Not heroism. Just showing up when people need you most.