Austin Girl Thanks Coronavirus Fighters In Grand Gesture

AUSTIN, TX — Words can fail in expressing gratitude to nurses and doctors on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus. One Austin sixth-grader's came up with a gesture of thanks that, while a study in word economy, spoke volumes.

The young resident, Lindsay, chose Ascension Seton Medical Center as her muse to arrange 200 small flower vases in the shape of a heart on the lawn fronting the hospital. Each vase also included a note of thanks to staff members.

And she didn't limit her gratitude to medical professionals, either. Her gesture also was meant for the unheralded members of the hospital staff too: "I know it takes more than doctors and nurses to be a hospital," she wrote. "There are janitors and cafeteria workers too."

Lindsay studies her handiwork. Photo courtesy of Ascension Seton Medical Center.

Lindsay told hospital officials of her wish that any staff member — from doctors and nurses to cafeteria workers and janitors — take a vase of flowers to enjoy.

Dr. Bill Kessler thanks Lindsay for her unique thank-you gift to Ascension Seton Medical Center staff members. Photo courtesy of Ascension Seton Medical Center.

“Flowers are the music of the ground," the American poet Edwin Curran once wrote. "From earth’s lips spoken without sound.” If this be true, Lindsay's gesture is surely a swelling symphony of the human spirit.