Hospice Casa Speranţei in Brașov (one of our Romanian hospice partners) cared for a brave 10-year-old girl named ‘M’. M was battling bone cancer, and after her tumour stopped responding to treatment, she had to leave her hometown, 100 kilometres away, to receive the palliative care she needed at our partner hospice.
M’s kindness and warmth touched everyone. Her nurse, Teo, recalls how M, eager not to upset anyone, struggled to remember the staff’s names at first. One day, she asked Teo to write her name on a sticky note and place it by her bed, just so she wouldn’t accidentally call her the wrong name.
It wasn’t long before the note became unnecessary as their friendship grew. M’s parents visited regularly, bringing small treats to brighten her days. On one occasion, they arrived with a giant watermelon. Generously, M asked Teo to cut it up so she could share it with the other children in the unit. That afternoon turned into a ‘watermelon party’, with music, dancing, and laughter that lifted everyone’s spirits!
Even on her more difficult days, when the pain was too much to bear, M remained gentle and kind. There were moments when she would lie in bed, exhausted and in tears, asking Teo the unanswerable question, “Why is this happening to me?” Teo admits there are no words to ease the weight of that question. All she could do was hold M’s hand and stay by her side. At the end of the summer, M passed away peacefully in her sleep, shortly after a visit from her parents. Though her time at Hospice was brief, her memory lives on, reminding us all of the power of kindness, love, and the small joys that can shine through, even in the most difficult times.
