HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — The violin creates such a magical sound, and for a patient at CHI St. Vincent in Hot Springs, that sweet sound was heard flowing throughout their hospital room.
Nurse Jane Chown at CHI St. Vincent in Hot Springs captured a moment of her friend Annie McWilliams playing Amazing Grace on the violin for a patient.
"In a crazy world, we are reminded that there is so much goodness also," Chown captured the video on Facebook.
McWilliams is also a nurse at CHI St. Vincent in Hot Springs. She works in the intensive care unit and often works extra to help with the nursing shortage.
"She’s a fantastic nurse, coworker, and friend," a co-worker of McWilliams said.
McWilliams said she has played the violin since she was five years old. So with her 23rd birthday being right around the corner, she will have been bouncing the bow for 18 years.
"This is the first patient I’ve played for," McWilliams said. "They’re a frequent admit that I’ve become really close to and I just wanted to do something special for her."
She said this patient's situation is something that she physically cannot change, nor do anything as a nurse to help heal her specifically, so she wanted to love on and encourage her.
"I wanted to brighten her day somehow and was finally brave enough to carry out what’s been in my head for awhile," McWilliams said. "I chose Amazing Grace because almost everyone knows that song regardless of background. Just hearing the melody brings the lyrics to you and the words have always been beautiful to me. It’s a comfort song!"
McWilliams graduated from National Park College in Hot Springs of May 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. She started in ICU as a new graduate and said she wouldn’t trade it for anything.