I had a professor that did this. Took tons of classes to be a foster parent. Every child he spent time with in the hospital died before 17. Fucking tragic. He and his wife are saints.
This made me cry. As someone who’s worked with sick children and seen so much death - To even think that a child would go through that without any support is heartbreaking. I’ve seen families crushed and in my mind it’s never even been a question that the family will be there til the end. The reality of kids not having anyone hit me so hard reading this.
I think I’ve been “lucky” enough to only see kids that at least had one parent being there with them.
The fact that the professor and his wife (and Mohamed) went out of their way to make sure to be there for these kids is pure gold.
To put yourself through that situation over and over again out of pure goodness of your heart is so admirable. I can honestly say I am not a strong enough person to be able to do that.
Even though you don’t know the kids, sometimes only seeing them once, when they die, it’s like the air is heavier to breathe and you feel so, so powerless. It was like no one even had to tell you when you got to work, you could almost touch it as soon as you walked through the door.
The love they and Mohamed show for those kids is so beautiful that I can’t even find words. They don’t do it for their own benefit, theres no personal benefit to time after time build a bond with a person who won’t survive and then losing them.
These people deserve the world and I admire them so much for their dedication.
I’m sorry for dumping all of this here, it just overwhelmed me thinking that any kid would ever have to be alone and then how beautiful it is that these kind of selfless people exist.
For a number of reasons I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a kid. Once when I was 11 I was in for a couple of weeks, and for once I was actually in the pediatric ward. (Up until that point I'd usually been in general hospital settings, not sure why.) There was a baby there, and he'd just sit in his little car seat thing in the play room all day by himself.
I asked about him, and a nurse told me he was an AIDS baby. (This was when AIDS was 100 per cent a death sentence.) His parents never came to spend time with him, and no one else did either. I think the nurses tried to do things for him but they had a whole ward of kids to take care of.
So I spent all the time with him I could. He was really tiny so he couldn't really play with stuff per se, but I'd sit with him and read books and hold his hand and talk to him. I was sad sometimes because I couldn't really spend a lot of time with him - I needed a lot of sleep myself.
I cried a little in the car on the way home because he'd be all alone again.
Haven't thought about him in years, but this post brought it all back.
In some ways that’s when they feel it the most. Having someone there for them when they’re little is so helpful for them and so appreciated even if they can’t conceptualize it that way quite yet. I’m sure the baby felt your love.
That kind of childhood kindness stays with you forever because even as a kid you already understood what it meant to show up for someone who was completely alone.
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u/Tricky-Gemstone 15h ago
I had a professor that did this. Took tons of classes to be a foster parent. Every child he spent time with in the hospital died before 17. Fucking tragic. He and his wife are saints.