The Nurse Who Kept Showing Up in Ward Seven

In 2019, a registered nurse named Clara Jennings transferred to Ward Seven of Cook County Hospital in Chicago — the unit everyone avoided. Ward Seven housed patients with chronic, often untreatable conditions. Morale among staff was so low that the break room fluorescent lights had burned out months earlier, and nobody had bothered to replace them.

Clara did something small her first week. She brought a lamp from home and set it on the nurses' station. Then she started greeting every patient by name. She learned their birthdays. She taped hand-written encouragement cards to IV poles. When other nurses complained about the futility of the ward, Clara would say, "They don't need us to fix everything. They need us to stay."

Within six months, three other nurses requested transfers into Ward Seven. A resident physician began volunteering extra shifts there. The hospital administration, noticing the change in patient satisfaction scores, finally renovated the break room. All because one woman refused to let her calling lose its flavor.

Jesus told His disciples they were salt and light — not decorations, but necessities. Salt that loses its saltiness gets thrown out. A lamp hidden under a basket serves no one. Clara didn't change hospital policy or rewrite medical textbooks. She simply lived out her purpose so consistently that the darkness around her had no choice but to recede. That is what the Savior means when He says, "Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."