Scenes from the Recovery Room

What would the world be like without nurses? A few words about history's most famous one: Believing she heard the voice of God calling her to service, Florence Nightingale refused marriage and decided nursing was her destiny. Although there's a lot of myth that surrounds her, my favorite fact about Florence Nightingale is that she was called "The Lady with the Lamp". I like the idea of somebody who brings light into darkness.

She got the name "The Lady with the Lamp" from a phrase in a report in the Times that said:

She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.