The Beautiful Nurse in the ETU

Yesterday, I saw the most beautiful male nurse I have ever seen. Beautiful is the right word, I think. Not handsome.

He was of medium build, with a head full of unruly curls. Not tall. I think it was his hair that grabbed my attention first. I was standing close enough to notice a few tattoos too, though most of them were covered, so I couldn't make out what they were. He also had a nose that qualified to be Sherlock Holmes' nose.

This was at the ETU.

One of my uncles, who lives down our lane, had a fall and knocked his head. There had been a lot of blood, so his wife called us.

As the responsible adult that I am, I immediately told my father.

The two of us rushed over and took him to the ETU.

Two years ago, I got a concussion after hitting my head while trying to rescue a cat. So we've learnt a lesson or two about why head injuries should never be taken lightly.

I stayed with my uncle while all the procedures were being done. That's when I encountered this nurse.

The reason I called him beautiful had very little to do with his being male. Yes, he was physically attractive, but that wasn't what stayed with me.

What made him beautiful was the way he handled the entire situation.

He was attentive. He explained everything that was happening instead of simply doing his job and moving on. Then he realised my uncle was hard of hearing. Without the slightest sign of impatience, he explained everything all over again, only louder this time. By the end of it, we felt looked after.

Maybe this is exactly what he was trained to do. It is a private hospital after all, and I'm sure kindness is part of good patient care. But I also believe he made a choice to be kind. He chose to take the extra minute. He chose to make us feel that we mattered. That made all the difference.

Watching him made me think about something.

I think almost every day I hear, or become part of, a conversation about how society has changed. People aren't as thoughtful anymore. They're too money-oriented. Too selfish. Too mindless.

Maybe some of that is true.

But I also think we spend so much time looking for evidence that people are getting worse that we overlook the quiet evidence that many people are still wonderfully good. None of us are entirely white or entirely black.

We meet these beautiful people almost every day.

The teacher who notices the child that no one else notices.

The person who stops to pick up a nail from the road because it might puncture someone's tyre.

The driver who pulls over to let another vehicle pass first.

The nurse with the beautiful curls who patiently explains everything twice because an old man cannot hear.

These people are everywhere. We just don't pay enough attention to them.

As long as we only focus on the bad, the world will feel like a bad place to live in. But if we start looking for the good, we'll find that it has been there all along.

This nurse with the beautiful curls is just one person among many.

If you really think about it, we meet beautiful people throughout our lives. We just need to pay more attention to them.

Better yet, we need to become them.