seeking the gold star

I was in the emergency room during COVID. I was there not as an ER physician but a hospitalist physician, doing a patient admission in the ER because there were no beds on the wards. People were anxious and angry; the day felt interminable and stressful. Amid the coughing, groaning, shouting, alarms, and overhead announcements, there was one nurse who was speaking to everyone kindly. She was one of the out-of-town  nurses who had flown in from Toronto to help us out, because so many staff members were off sick. We introduced ourselves, and she gave me a huge smile.
“You deserve a gold star,” she said, peeled one off a sheet in her pocket, and affixed it to my name tag. My eyes filled with tears.

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