The story behind this photo is the most powerful message you will read this month

Mom and Nurse

Bobby Wesson recently shared a photo of his wife cuddling their toddler and it quickly went viral.

The photo itself is very cute, but it was the message that the writer based in Birmingham, Alabama, shared in a Facebook post that caught so many people’s attention.

Rayena is a nurse who works long 14-hour days to care for her patients. She is also the mother to a small child that wants as much of her attention as possible.

Her selfless devotion to family and others often affects Rayena in profound ways.

We’ll let her husband explain their amazing situation. 

“This is my wife taking a nap. In an hour she will wake up, put on her scrubs and get ready for work.

The tools and items she needs to perform her job will be gathered and checked meticulously – her hair and makeup will be done quickly. She will complain that she looks awful. I will disagree, emphatically, and get her a cup of coffee.

She will sit on the couch with her legs crossed under her and try to drink it while happily playing with the toddler that’s crawling all over her.

She will occasionally stare off blankly as we talk; silently steeling herself for the coming shift. She thinks I don’t notice.

She will kiss the baby, she will kiss me and she will leave to go take care of people that are having the worst day of their entire lives. Car wrecks, gunshot wounds, explosions, burns and breaks – professionals, poor, pastors, addicts and prostitutes – mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and families – it doesn’t matter who you are or what happened to you.

She will take care of you.

She will come home 14 hours later and remove shoes that have walked through blood, bile, tears and fire from aching feet and leave them outside.

Sometimes she will not want to talk about it. Sometimes she can’t wait to talk about it. Sometimes she will laugh until she cries and sometimes she will just cry – but regardless of those sometimes she will be on time for her next shift.

My wife is a nurse. My wife is a hero.”

This is a special type of love and devotion to both work and family that we don’t always see so publicly.