Nursing is not only a scientific rigor, but also a humanistic warmth. Every day, we wield advanced medical technology, using professionalism and standardization to alleviate patients' pain and safeguard their lives. This is our duty and responsibility. However, we often face such questions: when medicine reaches its limits and healing becomes unattainable, what else can we do for patients? This is something that deserves deep reflection from every nurse.
Today, I would like to share with you the story of a girl named Jingjing, and to experience the warm humanistic power that transcends professionalism and flows through life.
She is 26 years old. This should be an age of sunshine, unrestrained running, embracing passion, and infinite longing for the future. Her name carries the gentlest expectations of her family and also encapsulates all the beautiful imaginations of a girl towards life.
But fate pressed the pause button on her most beautiful years. In 2023, a sudden backache shattered all tranquility. At the age of 23, a diagnosis paper revealed the cruel truth: left breast cancer with bone metastasis, stage IV.
Her world faded from color to gray in an instant. In what should have been a time for travel, love, struggle, and seeing the world, she was forced to be confined to a hospital bed, shuttled from one hospital to another, day after day, accompanied by cold instruments, endless treatments, and recurring pain. Her youth was imprisoned, her freedom was taken away, and her once bright eyes gradually lost their luster.
In June 2025, fate dealt her another heavy blow. The bone metastasis lesions compressed her spinal cord, resulting in paraplegia of both lower limbs. From then on, she was forever confined to her bed, and even the simple acts of getting up, standing, and walking became unattainable luxuries. Her physical freedom was completely taken away, and her life fell into an endless darkness.
When she arrived at our department, her eyes were filled with exhaustion, gloom, and silence that were far beyond her age. We could clearly feel the heavy shackles imposed by illness on her body, and we could also read the unknown despair in her heart.
Despite the MDT team's relentless efforts, including repeated discussions and adjustments to the chemotherapy regimen, and exhausting all possible methods, the cancer cells progressed relentlessly, spreading to the liver, brain, and both kidneys. In January 2026, Jingjing was admitted to the hospital again due to high fever. The examination results announced that the disease had progressed comprehensively, and all treatment methods had failed.
In over three years, she had barely stepped out of the hospital room, had never felt the free wind, and had never seriously and properly looked at the world in her preferred appearance.
When the attending physician softly explained the condition, and when all efforts had come to an end, this 26-year-old girl showed no signs of collapse or crying on her face, but only a calmness that came from exhausting all her strength. After careful discussion with her family, she softly uttered those five words: "Give up treatment.".
At that moment, the ward was extraordinarily quiet, and it was particularly heartbreaking. We deeply realized that respecting the patient's wishes is the starting point of medical humanistic spirit. When treatment no longer brings hope, and when prolonging life only brings more pain, what we can do is to help her walk towards the end of her life with dignity, warmth, and decency.
After briefing her on her condition, our charge nurse gently walked to the bedside, gently held her slightly cool hand, and spoke in a very low voice: "Jingjing, is there anything you wish to accomplish?"
She remained silent for a long time, her eyelashes fluttering slightly, and a faint blush sneaking up on her cheeks, resembling a young girl who cannot keep her little secrets. Finally, she whispered out her romantic and tender wish from the bottom of her heart: "I want to... take beautiful photos with handsome guys."
This simple yet beautiful wish instantly struck everyone present. We suddenly became acutely aware that she was first and foremost a 26-year-old girl, one who loves beauty, romance, and longs for a better life, and enjoys being treated gently. Illness may take away her youthful appearance and her health, but it can never erase her most instinctive longing for beauty, life, and warmth.
Thus, a gentle yet solemn action immediately commenced.
The head nurse immediately initiated an initiative in the department group, and the nurses, as sisters, took the initiative to bring mild and non-irritating cosmetics. The male doctors also actively cooperated. We sat around Jingjing's bed, taking every action with extreme care and gentleness.
We are well aware that her skin is fragile due to long-term treatment, covered with pinpricks and marks. Therefore, we avoid the wounds when applying primer, gently outline her eyebrows, and slowly blend in the lipstick. This is not an ordinary makeup session, but a professional and humane care practice. It is using aesthetics to rebuild her confidence and using gentle strength to brush away the gloom of illness.
When the foundation make-up gently covers the pallor of illness, when the eyebrow pencil outlines a gentle curve, and when the lipstick adds a touch of vibrant red, the reflection in the mirror becomes clearer little by little. We are pleasantly surprised and quietly smile.
That was the first time in a long while that we had seen her smile so genuinely, so relaxed, and so brightly. Her once dull and lifeless eyes gradually lit up, like stars that had been rekindled, warm and bright, illuminating the entire ward and warming everyone present.
We are not just applying makeup to her face, but also to her soul. This little touch of color not only brightens her appearance, but also serves as the warmest and softest light in the final journey of her life.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, creating a perfect scene. The moment the shutter was pressed, what was captured was not illness, not despair, not a patient confined to bed, but a 26-year-old girl, in all her vibrant, beautiful, and dazzling glory.
In front of the camera, she exudes confidence and poise, her eyes sparkling with light. She has regained her true self: loving beauty, laughing, and embracing romance. Illness may confine her body, but it cannot limit her pursuit of beauty, nor can it restrict her right to be loved, cared for, and seen.
These photos are the most precious gifts we have given to Jingjing, and also the most beautiful testimonies written by our medical team with love, heart, and warmth.
The story of Jingjing prompts us to constantly reflect: What exactly is the value of nursing? Does our work lose its meaning when "healing" becomes impossible?
The answer, of course, is not. The value of nursing goes far beyond administering injections, dispensing medication, performing procedures, and monitoring patients' conditions. It lies deeper in these six words: seeing, listening, and guarding.
We must learn to see that patients are complete "individuals" rather than merely carriers of "diseases", and pay attention to the warmth and aspirations inherent in life itself.
We must learn to listen, to bend down and hear the most authentic voice from their hearts. Even if it's just a small wish, it can be enough to become the light that illuminates life.
We must learn to protect, using professional skills to safeguard health, and using warm love to uphold dignity, protecting the last moments of their lives with beauty, dignity, and tranquility.
This is precisely the best interpretation of Dr. Trudeau's famous quote: "Sometimes to heal, often to help, always to comfort.".
As nursing staff, we are constantly navigating the hustle and bustle of the wards and the tension of emergency situations, with a fast-paced schedule, heavy responsibilities, and immense pressure. But please, never forget: every procedure, every greeting, every ward round, and every eye contact is an opportunity to spread warmth.
A sincere smile, a kind word of encouragement, a patient listening, a gentle assistance, all can become a beam of light, illuminating the darkest and most helpless moments of patients in their illness.
Let us persist in constantly cultivating ourselves on the path of humanity while advancing our professionalism and safeguarding lives. We should use our professionalism to protect health, and our care to soothe the soul, becoming nurses with warmth, sentiment, boundaries, and brilliance.
Finally, may we all become that beam of light, illuminating life and warming the years.
May we all adorn ourselves with love, let our hearts shine like the light, and warmly capture every precious life in our collective photos.
Image and text: Liu Xiaojing
Typesetting: Huang Guifang
Reviewed by: Jiang Bei