Tired, but not defeated.

Today, in my daily walk, I passed by the hospital that is a block away from mine... a couple of blocks later, a woman dressed in scrubs and looking extremely tired, was sitting, smoking a cigarette.

Before I realized it, I was asking a very dumb question.

"Excuse me, m'am... are you a nurse?"

She looks at me and I could tell she was holding the desire to answer in a most sarcastic manner.

"Yes" she said dryly.

"Uhm..." I say "I just wanted to say thank you for all you guys do... this cannot be easy on you, so... thank you."

She looks at me with what look like a tired and/or sad face, then answers

"You don't have to thank me. Just don't get sick."

I'll try my best, m'am."

I left her there to enjoy whatever time she had left before she had to go back to taking care, probably even saving, as many of us as she could.

Nurses, doctors, scientists, voluntaries... if you are reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you... you're stepping up to confront something new and scary, and while the rest of us are complaining and whining about having to quarantine ourselves, you have to deal with this demon directly daily and say "NO. NOT TODAY YOU DON'T".

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Josep