The Hat

Each time we have had a new baby in our family, we have greeted them into the world with a special little gift. A sweet little baby cap with their name stitched across the front.
We've always had pink hats before, so a light blue hat was unique for us and we were so anxious to get it on his little head.
The morning after he was born, on it went.
Until he started spitting up.
Everywhere.
I was sitting on my hospital bed when the spit up explosion began, so I undressed him, and set his little hat beside me on the bed. After cleaning him up, nature called and I spent the next long time in the restroom. But while I was in the restroom, housecleaning came in and changed my sheets. With the hat wrapped up inside.
It wasn't until a few hours later that I realized what had happened.
And the search began.
Our nurse at the time got in touch with the laundry people, who explained how the hospital laundry gets done, and and we came to the realization that we would probably never see our cute little hat again.
Which did wonders for my already highly emotional state.
Until the shift change and nurse Julee came in.
Julee is the type of nurse everyone should have. She got our room power cleaned, was extremely personable, funny, and attentive. I told her about the hat situation, and she immediately took it on as her special project.
She made phone calls and contacted everyone who could possibly find our little treasure. Most of her work on this, I understand, she did on her own time, from her house. She even called me the day I was being discharged to let me know she was still trying her best to locate it. But not thinking that finding the hat was a real possibility, I had just decided to get another done as soon as I could.

Then, a couple of nights ago, the phone rang, and it was Julee.

"Guess what, Terri", she said. "You'll never believe what I am holding in my hand."

She had found it.

She had worked hard on her own time, for someone she didn't even know, to find something that had no personal significance to her at all. She gained nothing from doing this. But she knew it was special to us, so she worked until she found it.

She left her 12 hour shift from the hospital that night, and brought the hat to our house. To our house. She didn't have to do that either.

We found out that the hospital actually sends their laundry out to get done, and it gets sorted and later sent back to the hospital. It's a miracle that the tiny little hat even made it back, much less made its way to Julee.

Because it went through the hospital laundry, it got bleached, so it's now white instead of blue. But I don't care.

It's clean.

It's sterilized.

And it's back at my house where it belongs.

You know, it's the little things that make a big difference.

And the people who care about the little things who make a big impact on your life.