“Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.” ❄️

In January 2024 when I was in Penn hospital after my kidney donor surgery I had a very special visitor. A stranger. She was like an angel.

I was laying in my hospital bed so sick and couldn’t even sit up. I had a catheter and IV’s in. My body was exhausted and super sick feeling.

A woman walked into my hospital room and introduced herself as a retired nurse named Donna. She was grandmotherly and had the most loving presence. She was going around to the hospital rooms to cheer up the patients and give us gifts. Coloring books and colored pencils and magazines and crossword puzzles, and journals and stress balls. And just various things to distract & uplift us.

I lovingly think of her as Nurse Donna.

The moment she stepped into my room and said hello my exhaustion & severe headache, that even IV pain meds/anti nausea meds wouldn’t touch, disappeared. I instantly sat up because of the surprise of how my body suddenly felt completely healed. She asked me if I minded her company. I said no. I was so thankful for it. I told her how her just being there seemed to heal me and that her presence & energy was just so warm & healing. She said she felt the same about me. I was surprised. It sounded so sincere. I wasn’t even telling her to flatter her or be kind or get a compliment in return. I was truly surprised and baffled.

No one else, even people I liked and the most uplifting people, made my body feel completely normal. I couldn’t even sit up when anyone else came into the room. I was so sick I had to stay an extra day in the hospital and have an extra IV because I couldn’t get up or drink anything.

Nurse Donna gave me various gifts. Then she held up something else. This bookmark in the picture here. She told me her young granddaughter, Turner, made it and told her to give it to someone special at the hospital, whatever patient she thought should have it most. The holidays were over so Nurse Donna wasn’t sure anyone would want it. She was hoping someone would because her granddaughter was so happy to have made it for “someone special.” She asked me if I would like to have it. She said she had a feeling I would.

I LOVE the holiday season & Winter. All year I wait for it to return. I told her that and that I would love to have her granddaughter’s bookmark. She was so moved and said she found the right person and was thrilled to tell her granddaughter later how much I love it. She told me some things about her family. It was so uplifting. I hope her granddaughter never outgrows making her beautiful gifts.

After she walked out of the room I experienced a sad feeling and sense of loss. I loved her presence and energy and felt like our conversation ended too soon. I felt there was more to know about each other. But she did not work there, she was only a visitor. So I knew I would likely never see her again. I just had this overwhelming feeling that I was “meant to” share more with her.

Not long later she returned to my hospital room. She apologized for the “intrusion.” She had the same feeling I did and felt the need to come back and express it to me before I even told her I had the same feeling. She said she felt like there was more to know about me. She told me she doesn’t usually ask too much about the patients, that she just gives them gifts, says a few kind words, and leaves. But me, she said she felt like I was “special.” I was so pleasantly surprised at the coincidence. She said something drew her back to my hospital room.

She told me she knew I was a transplant patient. That’s all the hospital staff was allowed to tell her. She asked if I would mind telling her my story but that she would understand if not. I was delighted. She is the very first person I had the honor of telling my experience to after my surgery.

I told her I just donated my kidney earlier that morning to the next person on the wait list here in the U.S. Just thinking about that gives me chills. It was the most amazing thing to get to say that out loud for the first time after almost twenty years of it being my dream. It was (still is) surreal.

Instantly her eyes filled with tears, and she just stared at me as if awestruck. She said it was the most amazing thing she ever heard and that she never met someone who has ever done something like that and that she couldn’t wait to tell the ladies in her group and her grandchildren. I remember her saying “You have no idea who has your kidney, and I bet you don’t even care, do you?” I said no.

She said she was so honored to be standing in my hospital room. Her grandson could have needed an organ transplant but thankfully it was prevented. She said she knew he would be so moved that she met a living organ donor.

She told me she hopes I live a long happy healthy life and have everything I ever dreamed of. That was so kind of her.

I just pulled this out to look at for the holiday season. I will hold onto it forever. It holds so much meaning and was made with love by a little girl who knew someone out there somewhere needed it. She signed her name on the back. How honored am I that of all the people in the city/hospital I’m the one to have received it. I wish so much I could find Nurse Donna and tell her I still have it & love it so she can tell her granddaughter.

Maybe one day I will. 🎄

After that encounter I never came across Nurse Donna again. But she’s one person I’ll vividly remember for as long as I live. I have a feeling we may cross paths again someday. I know she’ll remember me because it’s hard to forget an altruistic kidney donor 😆 The chances of meeting one are negligible, on a podcast episode I heard that we’re “statistically no one.” We’re less common than people who can wiggle both ears lol And I’ll know & recognize that loving energy & warm smile anywhere.

I love Nurse Donna the same as if we were friends. It doesn’t matter that I only knew her for less than a half hour and never saw her again, it feels like I know her whenever I think of her. Some people are that remarkable.

It’s amazing how one person can impact someone for life in just a few moments of knowing each other. And not because of anything they do or say but because of the pure love they radiate. 💚

Anyone who wants is welcome to share your own experience with a brief encounter with a kind stranger who touched your life for the better. I love stories like that.

(If anyone knows {retired} Nurse Donna who volunteers with Headstrong cancer foundation and gives sweet gifts to the patients at HUP, or her granddaughter, Turner, please direct her to this post. Thank you in advance lol)

Sending love to all 💚

Xoxo Kim 😘❤️