Era una fría noche en el hospital, Irene hacía sus acostumbradas rondas a sus pacientes, para colocarles sus tratamientos a sus horas o simplemente para ver por si misma, como se encontraban, era su deber como enfermera, pero mas allá de eso, siempre se interesaba por sus pacientes y su bienestar.

Tenia que pasar por todo el ala, donde se encontraban los pacientes que estaban internados por que se recuperaban de alguna operación o iban a ser preparados para estas, según las especialidades médicas, pero había un ala especial que era el lugar donde ubicaban a los que tenían un diagnostico de no recuperación, pacientes terminales.

Para Irene, este lugar era muy triste, por que generalmente los pacientes que estaban allí no duraban mucho con vida. Cada vez que entraba en turno, siempre recibía las novedades de algún paciente que ya había dejado este mundo, en su ausencia siempre había alguien, por eso trataba en lo posible de atenderles lo mejor que pudiera.

Muchos de ellos no tenían familiares y permanecían solos en sus últimos momentos, eso era muy duro de ver, siempre procuraba de tener especial atención con estos. Un día, llego un señor de unos 60 años, muy amable y agradable, pero sin familiares a la vista, Irene, le daba mucha desazón a veces verle tan solo y se ponía a leerle cualquier cosa, disfrutaban mucho sus charlas.

Un día, Irene llegó a su guardia y vio a su paciente que no estaba como siempre, esta vez lo encontró sedado, pues se descompensó en su ausencia. Ella terminó su guardia y pensó que quizás no le encontraría en su nuevo turno, le daba tanta tristeza esa situación, pero sabia que eso era parte de su trabajo, lamentablemente.

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Se fue a casa con ese pesar, con temor al siguiente turno. Llegó su próxima guardia y lo primero que hizo fue ir a ver a su amigo y se frenó en el acto, pues vio a otro señor muy bien vestido con traje, sombrero y un bastón, charlando con su querido paciente animadamente. Pensó, por fin vino algún pariente a verle y mira que animado que se ve, Irene se retiró discretamente.

Se fue a atender a sus demás pacientes, cuando le avisaron que su paciente predilecto por aquellos dias, había acabado de fallecer. Irene no podía creer aquello, si lo vio tan bien incluso, reía con tantas energías, se veía tan contento, como pudo ser eso, así de repente. Al llegar con las demás enfermeras, comentó lo que ella había observado, hace apenas una hora y como lo había visto.

Pregunto, quien lo había visitado, pues ella lo había visto con este señor, tan elegante. Sus compañeras le dijeron que absolutamente nadie, lo había visitado, que nadie había venido ni siquiera preguntado por el, que seguramente se confundió con otro paciente, pero Irene estaba clara con lo que había visto, incluso discretamente estuvo viéndolos por un momento.

Casi todas las enfermeras la vieron con cierta incredulidad, menos la jefa de enfermeras, que estaba hace rato oyendo las conversaciones, ella espero que todas hicieran silencio, para decirle a Irene que ella si le creía, pues ella misma había sido testigo de situaciones parecidas a lo largo de su carrera, que no habían sido pocos años.

Ella le explicó a Irene que seguramente lo que había presenciado fue la búsqueda de algún familiar del señor, que había ido a esperarlo, para su partida final, para que no se sintiera solo, perdido. Que muchas historias parecidas, había oído al respecto de muchos doctores, enfermeras, personal de limpieza en fin y que no era la primera vez, en que a un paciente lo ven charlando con alguien, antes de morir.

Irene al oír esta explicación, se sintió mas tranquila, mas en paz, por que sabia que su amigo, se había ido contento feliz, ella lo había visto, que no estuvo solo, lo único que lamentó, fue que ella no pudo despedirse de el como hubiese querido, pero sabia que el se había ido tranquilo y en paz.

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English

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It was a cold night at the hospital, Irene was making her usual rounds to her patients, to give them their treatments on time or simply to see for herself how they were doing, it was her duty as a nurse, but beyond that, she was always interested in her patients and their well being.

She had to go through the whole wing, where the patients who were hospitalized because they were recovering from some operation or were going to be prepared for these, according to the medical specialties, but there was a special wing that was the place where they placed those who had a diagnosis of non-recovery, terminal patients.

For Irene, this place was very sad, because generally the patients who were there did not last long. Every time she went on shift, she always received the news of a patient who had already left this world, in their absence there was always someone, so she tried as much as possible to assist them as best she could.

Many of them had no relatives and remained alone in their last moments, that was very hard to see, I always tried to pay special attention to them. One day, a gentleman of about 60 years old arrived, very kind and nice, but with no family in sight, Irene was very upset sometimes to see him so alone and she started to read him anything, they enjoyed their talks very much.

One day, Irene arrived at her shift and saw her patient who was not as usual, this time she found him sedated, as he had decompensated in her absence. She finished her shift and thought that maybe she would not find him on her new shift, she was so sad about that situation, but she knew that this was part of her job, unfortunately.

He went home with that regret, dreading the next shift. His next shift arrived and the first thing he did was go to see his friend and was stopped in his tracks, as he saw another well-dressed gentleman in a suit, hat and cane, chatting animatedly with his dear patient. He thought, at last some relative came to see him and look how lively he looks, Irene discreetly withdrew.

She went to attend to her other patients, when she was informed that her favorite patient for those days had just passed away. Irene could not believe it, if she saw him so well even, he was laughing with so much energy, he looked so happy, how could that be, all of a sudden. When she arrived with the other nurses, she commented on what she had observed just an hour ago and how she had seen him.

She asked who had visited him, since she had seen him with this elegant gentleman. Her colleagues told her that absolutely no one had visited him, that no one had come or even asked about him, that he was probably confused with another patient, but Irene was clear about what she had seen, she even discreetly watched them for a moment.

Almost all the nurses saw her with certain incredulity, except the head nurse, who had been listening to the conversations for a while, she waited for them all to become silent, to tell Irene that she did believe her, since she herself had witnessed similar situations throughout her career, which had not been a few years.

She explained to Irene that surely what she had witnessed was the search for a relative of the gentleman, who had gone to wait for him, for his final departure, so that he would not feel alone, lost. She had heard many similar stories from many doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, etc., and it was not the first time that a patient was seen chatting with someone before dying.

When Irene heard this explanation, she felt calmer, more at peace, because she knew that her friend had gone away happy, she had seen him, that he was not alone, the only thing she regretted was that she could not say goodbye to him as she would have liked, but she knew that he had gone away calm and at peace.