The nurse’s name was Rachel. She stared at the photograph for almost a full minute before memory returned. Twelve years earlier, she had been working nights in the emergency department when a little boy arrived after his mother was badly injured in a winter crash. He sat alone in a plastic chair, shaking and crying, while adults rushed around him. Rachel had wrapped him in a blanket, bought him a hot chocolate from the vending area, and stayed beside him until his father arrived.

The boy in my photograph was that child. His name was Samuel. Rachel had forgotten his face because she had comforted hundreds of frightened families over the years, but Samuel had never forgotten hers. His mother survived the accident but lived with lasting injuries. According to Samuel’s father, Rachel’s kindness during those terrifying hours became one of the stories their family repeated whenever they talked about people who helped without expecting anything back.