Deaf woman dresses like nurse to surprise friend at hospital on Mother’s Day

One Deaf woman, Kimberly Thurlow from Fulton, New York drove to Boston, Massachusetts to surprise her hearing best friend, Nancee at the hospital for Mother’s Day. Nancee has been struggling with severe health issues with her kidneys and Kimberly mentioned that Nancee will have an open heart surgery tomorrow. Nancee has been constantly have been in and out of the hospital. So, for Mother’s Day, Kimberly became a “Deaf nurse” for a minute.

[Video clip of “fake nurse” surprise]

Nancee’s son, Holden, was the one who captured the surprise moment. It was posted on Facebook and it has 84,000 views so far. The Daily Moth interviewed Kimberly. We asked her to explain how this happened.

KIMBERLY: Then somehow her son, Holden, texted me. He said, “Hey, Mother’s Day is coming up. It’d be nice if you could visit mom. She would love that.” And I said, “Okay, okay when?” He asked if I could come on Saturday morning. She didn’t know I was coming, he wanted it to be a surprise. I said that was fine. So I told my husband that we needed to go to the hospital to visit her. We drove for six hours and arrived at the Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital. And then Holden said, “Why not dress up and act like a nurse to make it an even more of a surprise?” I thought that was a good idea! Then we put on the gown on.

Renca: Nancee seemed really surprised. We also asked Kimberly if it was a challenge for her to convince a nurse or doctor for her to get the nurse’s “outfit.”

KIMBERLY: No, we already told him…Holden talked with them and explained that Kim had come here from New York and asked if she could surprise his mom by dressing up like a nurse. They said sure and gave the items. They thought it was a wonderful and neat idea. I put on the nurse mask.

Renca: Any last words of encouragement you would like to share with us?

KIMBERLY: Okay, life is short, that’s number one. And I feel it’s so important that you value your friends and your family. Because…you never know what’s going to happen to you tomorrow. So it’s important to be there for them. If they’ve been there for you then you need to be there for them too. That sort of friendship is rare.

Renca: Thank you, Kimberly, for sharing a heartwarming story. What a wonderful way to surprise a friend in a hospital.