Susan

One of my residents is a 56-year old woman with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease. Like Stephen Hawking. The muscles waste away but the mind remains intact. She cannot speak, but she can mouth words and also uses a special computer with a remote mouse attached to her forehead like an Indian "dot." I have taken care of Susan for several years. We have a special bond, being that we are only a year apart in age. We consider ourselves aging hippies. She loves Steven Tyler, I love Gordon Lightfoot. But anyway.
Yesterday while giving her her meds, she gestured with her eyebrows raised, her signal that she wants to tell me something. I guessed several of her possible needs, all of which she shook her head "no" to. Finally I guessed, "Does it have something to do with me? Not you?" She nodded "yes." I realized she must have noticed I had been crying. (My beloved friend was in the process of dying at her home at the time, and I had bid her goodbye the day before.)
 I said to Susan then, "Are you wondering why I am sad?" "Yes," she nodded. Then I told her about my wonderful friend Holly, dying of kidney failure which had developed due to old age. Susan continued to mouth one or two word questions pertaining to my friend. I have never been able to understand these  mouthings before, not being a lip reader.
But I believe because we were connecting on a heart to heart basis,  it somehow became very natural for me to see what she was saying instead of hearing it.
Susan was able to communicate with me rather easily in this way and I believe it was because we were sharing on a spiritual level. She mouthed the words "I love you" and I said "I love you too, Susie."
Sometimes being a nurse is not so bad, as long I am real.