Most people facing the end know it’s coming. They can just feel it.
They hope to tie up loose ends by saying goodbye to loved ones and pets. They desire to be surrounded by familiar voices and soothing, comfortable things, such as hearing familiar songs.
Tennessee nurse Olivia Neufelder holds many hands of people on the brink of passing away. She does what she can to ease their pain and their minds.
While caring for gravely ill patient Margaret Smith, Olivia was asked by her to sing “Dancing in the Sky.” The nurse had never heard that song, but wasn’t about to let her patient down.
Olivia found the Dani and Lizzy tune online and quickly learned the lyrics and melody. How fitting that this was the song that sweet Margaret wanted to hear as she neared the end.
“Tell me, what does it look like in heaven? Is it peaceful? Is it free like they say? Does the sun shine bright forever? Have your fears and your pain gone away? ‘Cause here on earth it feels like everything good is missing since you left. And here on Earth everything’s different. There’s an emptiness. Oh, oh, I … I hope you’re dancing in the sky and I hope you’re singing in the angel’s choir and I hope the angels know what they have. I’ll bet it’s so nice up in heaven since you arrived.”
Crystal Roberts, Margaret’s close friend and the wife of her pastor, captured Olivia sitting on Margaret’s hospital bed, serenading her while holding Margaret’s hand. The tears fell silently down Olivia’s cheeks.
The nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville definitely invests herself in each of her beloved patients.
Just days before Margaret slipped away, her daughter Megan Smith shared the video on Facebook where people couldn’t believe what a wonderful and compassionate thing Olivia paused to do during her shift in such a demanding job.
“Words cannot describe the appreciation and love we feel for nurse Olivia who mom calls her angel! Your dedication to your patients is beyond any that I have seen, you truly are a beam of light and I cannot thank you enough for the compassion and care and love you shared for my mother.”
Margaret, 63, battled liver cancer for almost a year and lost the fight not long after she and Olivia shared such a special moment. She had hoped for a liver transplant but was told she was too sick to receive one, Megan told TODAY.
In the video Megan posted to Facebook, which has since been viewed millions of times, Margaret was still a bit groggy from the anesthesia she was administered during a medical procedure. Olivia can be heard encouraging Margaret to sing along.
“OK, it’s our favorite part.”
Megan witnessed the outpouring of love from a nurse for her patient. Nurses don’t just treat individuals, but they invest their whole heart and soul into each patient.
“She just sang and sat with my mom for over an hour until my mom started feeling better.”
Margaret referred to Olivia as “her angel” quite often, Megan shared. She definitely could see why!
“She said when Olivia came into the room for the first time, it looked like there was a white light behind her, and you could almost hear angel wings.
Olivia also shared the video on her Facebook page, noting that “Miss Marg has touched my heart in such an indescribable way.”
“I am so humbled and honored to be a nurse. My thoughts and prayers are forever with this amazing family.”
Megan honored her mother, a single mom for years who raised Megan and her brother on her own, with her Facebook post.
“My mom was just an amazing woman. She treated everybody with kindness. She would give people the shirt off her back — she was that type of individual.”
Crystal intended to share the video with Margaret’s children and friends, but it’s been embraced and shared by thousands upon thousands of people. The comments people have left have warmed the family’s hearts, too.
“People are telling me they have been reminded that there is compassion and kindness still left in this world. The Lord is the only reason that that relationship happened. I think Olivia and my mom were two souls who were destined to intertwine. And it just blesses my heart because I know that my mother is up there, just there dancing in the sky.”
Pause for a moment and listen to Megan bring joy and love to Margaret’s life not long before her light faded away forever. It’ll bring a tear to your eye.
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