My thanksgiving in 2011 came on Tuesday (not Thursday) during a therapy dog visit to Kaiser in Irvine, CA with Mia. Family was in the room with mom in bed who doesn’t speak English. She lit up when I asked if I could bring the dog in, so Mia comfortably laid on the bed next to her. The pulmonary nurse comes in to do a procedure and the mom’s face was struck with pain, she looked at the daughter and said (per translation) “can Mia stay with me?”. We looked at the nurse and she said, no reason why not. The mask went on, the vapors swirled around, the mom coughed and coughed and looked at her daughter in pain. Then she looked down at Mia and started petting with both hands. In about 5 minutes mom was asleep and the daughter had tears in her eyes of thanks. She said that her mom dreads this procedure each time she has it and it was the first time she went to sleep during it. Her arm was gently rested on Mia – Mia was asleep too. We sat there chatting until the procedure was done and when the mask came off, I’ll never forget the look of thanks on that woman’s face. It brought tears to my eyes.
Pam Becker & Mia
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