Love is....

Patient. Kind. Not envious, boasting, or proud.

Love protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.

Love is the mother who takes the bus every day to visit her quadriplegic son. She takes his hands and legs and moves them for him to keep up his muscle strength.

Love is the husband who is so attentive to his wife after her surgery and goes to two different places for takeout so that she can have what she wanted.

It's the nurses holding back tears in the nurse's station as the patient they've known and loved hears that there's nothing else they can do.

Love is the nurse who volunteers to take an extra patient so that someone else can catch up.

Love is when there aren't enough chairs for the thirty family members gathering by the bedside- not just to say goodbye- but to remember and celebrate the memories.

Love is helping a patient cut her hair so that when it starts to fall out, she'll still feel pretty.

It's standing in a hallway, not saying anything, but letting someone who is hurting and alone have someone stand beside her.

It's the nurse who volunteers to pay for the medications for a homeless patient.

Love is the brother and sister who take in their disabled sibling. Not only do they take care of her, they send her on a vacation including a limo ride so she can feel special.

It's the patient who gets up and walks around and around the unit every day even when he feels horrible. He wants to get healthy- not for himself, but for his children.

Love is holding hands, kisses on foreheads, and big hugs without a thought that the person is sick, threw up an hour ago and hasn't showered in days.

It's trying a million different ways of adjusting the pillows so they can be comfortable.

Love is the couple who has been together for over fifty years calling each other from different rooms in the hospital every day. And it's the nurses who arrange their schedule so they can visit each other.

Love is the manager who assigns an extra aid to help the patient get dressed and put on makeup so she can go take pictures outside with her family on her granddaughter's wedding day.

It's visiting a patient who doesn't get visitors and telling every joke you know to make them laugh.

Love is throwing a birthday party for a patient's two year old son. Complete with cupcakes, balloons, presents, and a party hat.

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered.

Love never fails.