Doctors and nurses deserve all the credit for the work they do. After all, they’re the ones who save our lives and nurse us back to health. However, that’s not always the case and hospice workers are aware that their patient’s stay won’t end in a full recovery. While most people see such work as demanding and harrowing, this nurse created a blog to not only express her thoughts and feelings but also familiarize people with her work and experiences.

Recently, Gabrielle Elise Jimenez, the woman behind the blog “The Hospice Heart”, shared a heartwarming exchange she had with one of her patients and the story went viral. The conversation between the two detailed the patient’s experiences and loss.

Bored Panda reached out to Jimenez for more information and she replied with some additional details about herself and her writing. “I am a hospice nurse, currently going back to school to become an End of Life Doula, to be able to provide even more care to people at the end of their life and those who will be left behind,” Gabrielle told us about herself. “I love what I do… it isn’t easy, some days are deeply difficult,” she explained.

More info: thehospiceheart.net

Recently, a hospice nurse took to Facebook to share her interaction with one patient

“I started The Hospice Heart FB page because I wanted to create a safe space for people to be able to to talk about death,” the nurse explained why she created the page. “I am a hospice nurse and I find that I don’t have a lot of people who are willing to talk about it as much as I am, some are very uncomfortable, some are afraid, some are grieving a loss and don’t know what to do or how to navigate it… so much to work through with death,” she said, “I wanted to have a page that would offer comfort, support, education, maybe some insight.”

Image credits: pudgeefeet (not the actual photo)

“It has blown me away the reaction this particular posting has received,” Gabrielle shared. She also explained how she came across the image she used: “I wish I knew who created the photo, I found it on FB a few days before I posted it and thought it resonated so closely to what my patient had shared with me.”

“This page went from 1000 followers to 44,000 in just a few days. Most in part to this story I shared,” she credited the post as the reason her community started growing. “The thing I love most about the FB page is watching as complete strangers communicate with one another, sharing stories, comforting others when they hear their stories.”

Image credits: Prefeitura Balneário Camboriú

“My blog this coming weekend is actually about this, because I became acutely aware of the grief people experience from losing a pet,” Jimenez revealed. “The pain and ache is real, and very deep for those experiencing it.” The hospice nurse also discussed achieving her goal: “My goal was to get the conversation started, to build a village, a beautiful, kind community… and it is happening and I absolutely love it”.

Here’s how people reacted to the touching story