Unspoken Humility

Years ago, I once had a Native American patient in the ICU who was dying of a brain tumor.
During one of our conversations, Old Man R.R. as I'll refer to him, asked me two questions:
1.) My Vietnamese name: An (pronouce: Aang), meaning "Peaceful",
and
2.) Why I became a nurse? I spent the evening telling him the story of my journey. At the end of our conversation, he encouraged me to keep building my spirit and keep helping people—but do so without the need to announce it to the world. Instead, he told to hold it in my heart. Before my shift was over, he had me take a picture with him.

Watching this video of a man who secretly saved over 600+ Jewish children during the Holocaust reminded me of the words from Old man R.R.

Months later after I had the honors of taking care of him, he passed on. His daughter reached out to send me his gratitude. I was truly honored. Reminiscing back, I think I only grasped part of what he meant. It wasn't until coming across this video of Sir Nicolas Winton that I truly understood the advice given by my past Native American patient, Old man R.R.

“Unspoken humility is the purest and most powerful form of moral goodness”

I still have that photo of us together and I often look at it as a reminder of my moral compass. I didn’t include it in this post, not because I feel he or his family would’ve objected, but because I believe he’d prefer me to hold it in my heart. Old Man R.R. May you Rest in Peace and may your 'WILL' live on through your loved ones and the people you’ve positively touched. 🙏 Thank you for the lesson.