Putting the 'soul' in soldier

Its Memorial Day, a holiday meant to honor those who serve our country and to mark the beginning of a new season, Summer. In light of this, I want to share one of many 'NICU stories' I have saved in my mental filing cabinet under Times I Had to Choke Back Tears at Work. The story involves a mom who is not a soldier per se, but someone who has weathered a battle in the process of bringing a life into the world and has not finished fighting. At 25 weeks gestation, this 50 year old first time mother (yes you read that right, 50 years) came to see her OB because of persistent bloating and abdominal pain. After a physical exam, the findings of which I do not know the details, the decision was made to ultrasound the abdomen. Multiple lesions of unknown etiology were found on her liver in addition to an abnormal appearance of her omentum. A biopsy showed the lesions to be a metastatic small cell adenocarcinoma of unknown origin. She was admitted to the hospital for palliative chemotherapy but the cancer was considered terminal. The baby arrived at 30 weeks due to a placental abruption and was immediately sent to us for further care. This mom is bedridden and on a constant infusion of narcotics for pain. She is unable to come to the NICU to see her baby boy and is not alert enough to receive updates. The nurses take digital pictures and send them to her room in the event that she wakes up and is able to see this life she has created. According to her history, she has been married for only 2 years and conceived this baby through a donor egg and implantation. Because the medical chart is devoid of emotional backstory, I create my own. I imagine after years of independence and a life full of friendship and family she had resigned herself to spending her years without finding 'the one'. And then this amazing person walked into her life and swept her off her feet. They couldn't imagine not creating a family together and despite the odds found a way to have a child. She felt like all of her prayers were answered and she was the luckiest person in the world to have found all that she had found. But in an instant, the path she saw unfolding before her turned and she finds herself fighting for a chance to see her husband and child for just one more day. When I care for that baby I am looking at a little boy who will not know his mother as she will likely be dead before he even leaves the hospital. But, he will know that his mother embraced her dreams and squeezed as much out of this life as she possibly could against great odds. She fought the good fight and I salute her.