“What’s your favorite word, Señor?”
One of my students asked me that question last fall as we were wrapping up the day’s lesson in which our focus was to recognize a handful of new vocabulary words that the students would see a few days later in a story.
“Ubumuntu,” I told him.
It’s a word I learned last summer in Rwanda and one I have written about a couple of times since my wife Jen and I returned from our trip to Africa in June 2023. It means humanity — goodness, generosity and kindness. A person who has Ubumuntu is someone who has greatness of heart and shares that sentiment with others.
Greatness of heart — three simple words that convey one of the most beautiful expressions of language I have ever heard to describe a person’s character and what we should strive to be like in our everyday lives — to be good, to be generous, and to be kind to those in our lives and those who may enter our lives only for a short time.
A group of medical professionals — doctors, nurses and technicians — unexpectedly entered our lives a few months ago, and the only word I have to describe all of them is Ubumuntu.
Jen was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in February. Three months later, we are thrilled to share that she has recovered from a surgery and is two weeks in to her weekly chemotherapy treatments that will continue until the end of July.
I have lost count of the number of appointments we have had since the end of February with her team of doctors and nurses.
What we have not forgotten, however, is the goodness, the generosity and the kindness each doctor, nurse and medical professional has showed us every step of the way since we received the upsetting news this winter that she had cancer.
Jen and I had both been fortunate up until this point in our lives to have spent little time in hospitals, as we both had been healthy and strangers to the doctor’s office beyond regular checkups and such. We now feel like local experts — a designation we’ll be happy to bid farewell to once Jen finishes her chemotherapy and other treatments in May 2025.
We have always appreciated the excellent medical care we have access to in northeast Indiana; however, we have gained a new level of appreciation for every person who works in a hospital and helps people at oftentimes one of the most vulnerable moments in their lives.
I know that we’ll never be able to say thank you enough times to everyone who is taking care of Jen. We’ll never be able to repay the doctors and nurses for their goodness, their generosity and their kindness. Instead, we’ll try our best to pay it forward each and every day.
We’ll be spending our next 10 Thursdays with a special group of medical professionals at the oncology clinic as Jen receives her weekly chemotherapy treatments. The care, compassion and expertise that these nurses show as they take care of Jen and all of their patients will bring tears to your eyes. You can take my word on that last part.
May just happens to be Oncology Nursing Month. We are certainly celebrating them this month for their skills and compassion — and we’ll forever be grateful for all of the Ubumuntu we have experienced from Jen’s medical team this year as we try our best to pay forward the greatness of heart that so many have shown us.
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