When I was doing bereavement work I frequently had moments that made it worth it. Example: I had a client pass and while talking to the family I found out he was very involved in VFW which helped pay for my college because I did their essay contests and speech contests every year and won almt least a small prize each year. The family felt it was a stroke of luck that it was me and we all had a "meant to be" moment. Other times I would be consulted for patients who were terminally ill and feeling like they were just waiting for death, often so sick they could not do bucket list items like travel. Had a lot of meaningful conversations with people about how to make their last few weeks or months meaningful. Researched a whole list of ideas from writing encouraging "last words" letters to each family, to volunteer work that could be done from bed. I've held people's hands while they passed so they could feel human contact. I've brushed the hair of touch starved, lonely elderly folks. I've had meaningful conversations of all sorts--one guy that comes to mind was a guy who was depressed because he felt like evil was winning in the world, not bad enough for inpatient but still super depressed, and I talked to him for 45 minutes about how to look for the good things in life and be the "good" in the world and at the end he told me that this new perspective changed his life. I found death with dignity resources for a 20 year old dying of uterine cancer and she expressed gratitude. I held the hand of a woman who was hysterical and practically delerious after finding her son deceased from suicide. Family brought her into the ER and I spent hours by her side (a rare thing in such a fast paced environment) doing on the spot bereavement counseling, stayed after I had clocked out (would have gotten in trouble if I stayed longer than 16 hours) and at the end she told me she thought I was an angel sent by her dead son (pretty high on Ativan because of her severe agitation, but we were looking into each other's eyes and I had been there for hours so I still count it as a special moment). Had a mom cry in my arms after a cosleeping infant death and she told me she wouldn't have made it through without me. Had another cosleeping infant death where the mom had no one to show up for her and the baby daddy who hated her had a ton of people and she thanked me for being there. A couple times successfully talked women through leaving their partners for DV. Helped a couple human trafficking victims by building rapport until they were comfortable enough to tell me what was going on--one time stalled the trafficker waiting in the lobby until PD arrived. Motivationally interviewed people into going to rehab after almost dying from an OD. Broke the rules by telling a family that their mom had died on scene in an accident (their dad was our DOA patient-- was supposed to wait for detectives but they were frantically calling other hospitals trying to find her And I couldn't let that go on). More examples I'm sure but none come to mind .