The Night Nurse on the Third Floor

Margaret Healy worked the overnight shift at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids for twenty-three years. Her patients would drift off around ten, and through those long, quiet hours — when monitors beeped and hallways dimmed — Margaret walked her rounds. Every forty-five minutes, she checked each room. She adjusted IV drips, repositioned pillows, listened to breathing. Her patients never knew how many times she stood in their doorway at 2 a.…