When I worked as a nurse, I was on day duty while my workmates were on night duty. On one shift, I sensed something just before going off duty at 11 am. I put down the tray(托盘） on the table and suddenly it fell off the table. At first I thought I had accidentally knocked it over, but then I felt the whole building shaking and heard patients were screaming.   

I realized that an earthquake was happening. I quickly caught hold of a nearby patient, who was terribly frightened and pushed her under a bed. And then, I got under another bed myself.   As soon as the earthquake stopped, I decided to try and get the patient safely outside. I carried her out and helped her down to the grassland, where several other people had gathered.

Afraid that my other workmates were in danger, I went back inside the building again. When I met Lucy ,our ward sister(护士长），I found her patient couldn't walk. We made a seat for the patient by linking our hands and arms, and carried her outside together. We went back through the building to check no one was left behind in our ward(病房）.

Just then, we saw that a man doctor was calling for volunteers to go down to other wards with him to help more people. So we went together. The doctor went ahead of us and found one of the nurses partially covered with rubble（碎石），luckily still alive. Suddenly, the aftershock (余震）struck and the doctor ordered us to leave. The brave doctor intended to stay alone and risk his own life to save the nurse.

Grandpa Cecil Rodgers has narrowly escaped a phone scam (欺骗). It all began with a telephone call…

Cecil is an elderly man from Cincinnati, Ohio, who was looking forward to spending time with his family over the holidays. They were all coming to visit him at his Elmwood Place home, including his adult grandson David. One afternoon, while napping in bed, he was awakened by the sharp ringing of his telephone.

“Who will ring me up at this time?” He wondered. Peering towards the phone, he hesitantly picked it up. From the receiver came an urgent voice. “Grandpa, this is David. I am in trouble.” Before Cecil could ask him any question, he continued, on and off, half crying, “I hit a woman’s car and she was seven months pregnant. And they charged me with drunken driving and I’m in prison...” He sobbed loudly. His voice was so broken that Cecil could hardly match it with the gentle and warm voice of his grandson. Poor David! He must be suffering! Cecil panicked immediately.

Without more detailed communication, the phone passed suddenly to another person--- David’s lawyer who had a deeper voice. Seemingly, he understood Cecil’s anxiety and attempted to comfort him with a solution. “Now the only way to help David is to go to Wal-Mart and transfer $2,300 to another store. I would pick up the money and then use it to post David’s bail (保释金).” “I am sure everything would be OK as long as the money is in place,” he added. Ultimately, he lowered his voice, “Don’t tell anybody. You don’t want to make your grandson look ugly in your neighborhood.” The lawyer hung up even before Cecil could give an answer.

I met Connie the day she was admitted to the hospice ward, where I worked as a volunteer. Her husband, Bill, stood nervously nearby as she was transferred from the gurney(轮床)to the hospital bed. Although Connie was in the final stages of her fight against cancer, she was cheerful and always smiled. We got her settled in and then asked if she needed anything.

“Oh, yes,” she said, “would you please show me how to use the TV? I enjoy the soaps so much and I don't want to get behind on what's happening.” Connie was a romantic. She loved soap operas, romance novels and movies with a good love story. As we became acquainted, she confided how frustrating it was to be married 32 years to a man who often called her “a silly woman.”

“Oh, I know Bill loves me,” she said, “but he has never been one to say he loves me, or send cards to me.” She sighed and looked out the window at the trees in the courtyard. “I’d give anything if he’d say ‘I love you,’ but it‘s just not in his nature.”

Bill visited Connie every day. In the beginning, he sat next to the bed while she watched the soaps. Later, when she began sleeping more, he paced up and down the hallway outside her room. Soon, when she no longer watched television and had fewer waking moments, I began spending more of my volunteer time with Bill.

He talked about having worked as a carpenter. He and Connie had no children, but they’d been enjoying retirement by traveling, until Connie got sick. Bill could not express his feelings about the fact that his wife was dying.

One day, over coffee in the cafeteria, I got him on the subject of women and how we need romance in our lives; how we love to get sentimental(柔情蜜意) cards and love letters.

“Do you tell Connie you love her?” I asked (knowing his answer), and he looked at me as if I was crazy.

“I don’t have to,” he said. “She knows I do!”

“I’m sure she knows,” I said, reaching over and touching his hands rough, “but she needs to hear it, Bill.”

We walked back to Connie’s room. Later, I saw Bill sitting by the bed. He was holding Connie’s hand as she slept. The date was February 12.

Two days later I walked down the hospice ward at noon. There stood Bill, leaning up against the wall in the hallway, staring at the floor. I already knew from the head nurse that Connie had died at 11 A.M..

When Bill saw me,

I went into the room to say my own goodbye to Connie.