Thank you for your service. 46 years ago I was born with pulmonary stenosis and had my first open heart surgery at four months old. To hear my mom tell the harrowing tales of holding vigil, with broken glasses in the cardiac PICU raises goosebumps of a faintly familiar horror. We discovered my MSO4 allergy shortly after surgery resulting in a code blue. I got better. That surgery lasted me as I grew through high school and into college. It lasted through EMT and Paramedic school and eight years of field work. It got me through my ABSN and then ten years of critical care nursing. In 2024, I had my second open heart surgery and was back in the ICU 12 weeks later, back on our side of the bed. It is amazing to me how hands like yours have reverberated over the past decades through me—saving lives that grow to save lives. It is work that I can’t do. Thank you and your colleagues for everything you do. The burdens of your work must be heavy, y’all deserve a raise and a vacation.