Caring for others always brings me back to you.

Long before I ever wore scrubs or answered to the title “nurse,” I was just a junior high school girl—unsure, inexperienced, and gently entrusted with the simplest kind of care. They’d ask me to watch over you, Nanay, whenever Lola Delima had to step away. I didn’t know what caregiving meant in a clinical sense. I had no training, no textbook knowledge, no idea of the medical world I’d someday enter. But I knew how to sit beside you. I knew how to listen. And in my own quiet, awkward way, I knew how to love you by simply being there.

God, in His way of weaving things we don’t understand—was already paving a path I couldn’t yet see.

What I didn’t realize then was that those small moments—your soft breathing, the calm of your room, the gentle routines we shared—were planting something inside me. A seed. A calling. A quiet fire I couldn’t yet name.

Back then, nursing felt like an impossible dream. Too far. Too expensive. Too bold for someone like me to reach. I told myself it wasn’t meant to be. But God—God, in His way of weaving things we don’t understand—was already paving a path I couldn’t yet see.

And now… here I am. A nurse. Not the pretend kind with plastic stethoscopes and hopeful eyes, but the real kind. The kind who holds a patient’s hand through pain, who whispers comfort when words are failing, who stands at the edge of fear and chooses to stay.

You never got to see me in this uniform. You never got to watch me step fully into the role that, in many ways, you helped me prepare for. But Nanay, you are with me in every room I enter. In every heart I comfort. In every quiet moment where I remember that caregiving is more than a skill—it’s love in action.

I treat my patients like they’re you. With tenderness. With patience. With that sacred mix of strength and softness I learned at your side. And in doing so, I keep you close.

Thank you, Nanay, for being one of my first inspirations. For unknowingly guiding me toward the path I was meant to walk. I miss you more than words can say. But I know—somewhere above—you’re watching, smiling, and still keeping an eye on all of us.

You are loved. Always.

With all my heart,
Anj 🌸♥️🙏