For several decades Amanda Scarpinati clung to a black and white photograph that meant more that words could possibly say to her. In the picture, a young nurse provides comfort to her inside a hospital after traumatic accident. The picture was taken back in 1977 at Albany Medical Center from the State of New York when Amanda was three months old. She was plunged from a sofa into a hot-steam humidifier and managed to burn third degree burns. Her head as coddled by gauze, but in the arms of the mystery nurse, that tiny child had a fleeting moment of peace during a painful beginning.
The injuries that Amanda incurred needed a lot of surgeries during her childhood. While her body healed up her heart bled over and over again because even the classmates, that she had once considered her friends, made fun of her scars unabashedly. In this way all the agony, she found a comfort in the picture of the nurse—a woman, whose name she did not know but whose soft look brought comfort, when all other comfort had disappeared. She addressed the photo as she would a trusted friend would talk to her. It became a lifeline – a reminder of that there used to be someone who cared so much even then she was at her most vulnerable.
The more Amanda aged, the more she wanted to know the woman in the picture. She spent more than two decades making efforts to identify the nurse, so she could convey her appreciation personally. After all the traditional search had failed, Amanda tried one more time deeply passionate about search of social media. She posted the photo on Facebook and described a simple, but emotional appeal: she wanted to find out the name of the nurse who had attended to her, so that she may thank her, and it may be possible to meet her also. “Please share,” she wrote. “You never know what circles it could spread.”
The post took off. During the next 24 hours after posting, Amanda got the message she waited for decades. When Angela Leary, a nurse who worked in 1977 at Albany Medical Center, found the post she recognized her friend and her colleague Susan Berger. Susan had only been 21 years old at the time, and just graduated college and beginning her nursing career. Amazingly, Susan also had a copy of the same photo for all those years and vividly remembered Amanda. She remembered that, for a baby that came out of surgery, Amanda was incredibly serene, calm and trusting, even while traumatised.
Shortly after the identification, Amanda and Susan met in an emotional meeting that was long 38 years. They hugged each other as long- lost family, and the bond between them, that had started with one tender moment stumbled in full progress. Susan was very touched by the reunions and even said, “I don’t know how many nurses would be lucky enough to have something like this happen, to have someone remember you all that time. Humble as she was she added she felt honoured to represent all the nurses who had looked after Amanda for so many years.
Amanda’s story is not just a story of survival, it is a story of endurance and compassion, of the quiet heroism of nurses and of a phenomenal force for human connection. Search, long as it is, and its moving ending remind us how good things can reverberate through a lifetime. It’s a test of the power of the human spirit and the big things caregivers can do in our darkest times.
This true story moves people not because it’s dramatic, but because it’s so incredibly human. It’s a reminder of how much it matters, to know the kindness matters, and why those who give it, especially during the most difficult times, should be lauded and remembered.