If the endpoint of life is death

If the endpoint of life is death, then we want to play and laugh together with them along the way.

A few weeks ago, after a performance, I was on my way back to the rest room at a certain medical center when I happened to hear a nursing instructor telling the nursing interns Xiao-Dong’s story—the 10-year-old boy whom I had accompanied for the longest time and most frequently since I began working as a Dr. Red Nose.

Instructor: “During that child’s final moments, he knew he was going to leave. He said, ‘Please ask God to give me five more minutes.’ He asked his father to call the head nurse over and said that because he was ill, he did not often go to school. When he went to school in first grade, his classmates would all look at him and ask, ‘Who are you?’ He felt that he had no friends at school. But here (on the hospital ward floor), it was like his school; the nurses were like teachers who took great care of him, and the Medical Clown were his friends. He wanted to thank the nurses and the Medical Clown….”

I remember that during my training, Dr. Li-Li Lu shared about a wall at the National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital. That wall depicted the journey of life, and the doctor said: “If the ultimate end of life is death, then can we accompany them to play and be happy together along the way……”

In my fifth year, I gradually came to understand.

Because of you, I have deeply seen the value of the work I do and of those moments of companionship.

Thank you, thank you all ❤️

*Adapted from the content of feedback report by Dr. Red Nose Diamond (Shu-Chen Tung).