“I love babies,” chirped Nurse Stellaf, cradling a newborn to her little bosom. “They’re all beautiful, every single one of them!”
Twelve years in the neonatal ward at Sacred Heart Hospital, and Nurse Stellaf still fell in love with every newborn, no matter how pointy its little head might be. “That’s just natural,” the nurse would explain to visitors. “Their little fontanels fuse up later and they all get that nice round head that’s so pretty, isn’t that right, little one?” And she’d reach out with an index finger to beep the baby’s nose. “Oh, I just love babies! I can’t help it, I just love them all!”
Some of Stellaf’s co-workers felt she was overenthusiastic, but new parents were invariably charmed by her genuine excitement over their tiny children.
One co-worker, a male nurse, was weirded out by how inhumanly cheerful Nurse Stellaf was when she was working. She was always appropriate, always professional, yet there was something he couldn’t put his finger on. No one could like their job that much. There was something strange about it, he would say occasionally. No one disagreed, but no one actually agreed, either.
Even the ugliest, most pointy-headed, jaundiced little preemie got oodles of love and attention from Nurse Stellaf. In fact, a baby born with its bladder on the outside of its body got warmth and affection from the kind heart of Nurse Stellaf, who made a personal point of visiting the child and her parents every day until the surgery was successful, recovery was complete, and the fragile little body was healthy.
Nurse Stellaf had no children of her own. She didn’t talk much about her family. It was generally assumed she didn’t have any. Maybe that was why she got so excited over the children in the neonatal unit. Maybe it was a biological reason. Maybe it was a choice. Or maybe she had been through some sort of trauma earlier in her life that kept her from developing as a parent or bonding to another adult.
Maybe she just liked babies. We’ll never know.
Copyright 2006 Amy Frushour Kelly. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means prohibited without prior written consent.