Martine is a great woman. She helped me to feel in control of the situation, like I was calling the shots and knew what I was doing. She made me feel like she was deferring to me in Rose’s care. Basically she treated me like the mother of a well child, out in the world and that really helped me to prepare for being one. Apart from all this she is of course an excellent nurse but I think she was the most like me of all the nurses. She understood ME and the world I came from best.
When Rose had her Gastrostomy put in I think Martine understood what a big thing that was for me. I so didn’t want it and she’d listened to me rail against it in NICU. She and Katie turned up in CICU to check on Rose after her surgery. I needed those friendly, familiar faces in the “new” ICU. What magnificent CARERS.
Martine was a big fan of Rose’s library and borrowed from it for her daughter too. I loved sharing all our favourites with her.