Libby Watrous, you have no idea how you affected our lives.

Picture a family gathered around a very sick 90-year-old lady in intensive care at Kennewick General Hospital.

My mother had been only minimally responsive after falling, breaking her hip, having a pacemaker installed because of an erratic heart beat and then being struck with a virulent infection.

That's when Libby Watrous, a chaplain at Kennewick General Hospital for the Tri-City Chaplaincy, came into our lives. She was making rounds at KGH playing a harp.

She stopped outside my mother's room and was playing The First Noel when my mother -- with tubes coming out of everywhere and laying back as though asleep, started singing. And not just the first verse, but the second -- then two more Christmas carols, until Libby realized mother was exhausted and, with a tender smile, moved on.

My mother died four days later despite unbelievably tender, compassionate and skilled care from the ICU staff at KGH. We recorded mother singing one of those carols played by Libby and that recording will be played at mother's services.

Libby, you were an angel in disguise who came at exactly the right time for me, our family -- and my mother.

You left not a dry eye in the room.

Wanda Briggs, Kennewick