Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

The Power of Touch

The Power of Touch

"Thank you nurse" I heard my patient softly whisper.

"Thank you for rubbing my back with your hands"

My hands? I mused as I quietly slipped out of the darkened patient room.

After a few minutes, her remark settled in the cortex of this nurse’s gray
matter. I had just given her a back rub with my hands.
No gloves...just my bare hands gently massaging her bony frame.

For years we medical care givers have separated ourselves
from the sick and dying in our care
with the thin veneer of the ever present protective gloves?

Having recently returned from Cambodia where I served with 26
humbled Americans, offering medical services to the peoples of
this poverty stricken small third world Asian country, I recalled another conversation when someone asked if we used gloves when
treating the masses thronging the clinics each day.

I confess, I rarely utilized the gloves packed tightly in my baggage. Looking into the gentle faces of these little brown people I thought, "How can I touch their hearts if they sense that they are too dirty for me to touch their skin?"

The words to a Dianna Ross 60's tune just floated through my head... and conveys my heart

Reach out and touch
Somebody’s hand
Make this world a better place
If you can
Reach out and touch
Somebody’s hand
Make this world a better place
If you can


Someone once told Mother Teresa that not even for a million
dollars would they touch a leper!!

She responded: "Neither would I... if it were a case of money. I
would not even do it for two million. On the other hand I would do
it gladly for the love of God."

Judy Crausbay Hamilton

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