Chapter 33 - The First Clinic Job
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Two months after graduation, Grace began her official career.
She was hired as a licensed pediatric occupational therapist at a highly respected rehabilitation clinic in the city. The clinic specialized in helping children recover from severe physical trauma and navigating developmental disorders.
On her first morning, she stood in our kitchen, wearing neat, professional scrubs, a stethoscope peeking out of her pocket, and a brand-new ID badge clipped to her collar. The badge read: Grace Bennett, OTR/L.
"How do I look?" she asked, smoothing the fabric of her scrub top.
"You look like a professional," Daniel said proudly, handing her a travel mug of coffee. "You look like someone who is going to change the world today."
"I’m just hoping to help a kid hold a spoon properly today," Grace laughed, taking the mug. "Let’s keep the expectations manageable."
I walked her to the front door, feeling a strange, bittersweet ache in my chest. She was stepping out into the world not as a survivor, not as a victim, but as a healer.
"Call me when your shift is over," I told her, hugging her tightly.
"I will," Grace promised.
That evening, she returned home looking exhausted but deeply fulfilled. She sat at the dining room table, kicking off her shoes.
"How was it?" I asked, sitting across from her.
"Hard," Grace admitted. "I had a patient, a little boy who was in a bad car accident. He was so frustrated because his fine motor skills are gone. He kept crying, saying his body was broken."
"What did you tell him?"
Grace looked at me, a fierce, beautiful light in her eyes.
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"I told him that bodies break, but they also rebuild," she said softly. "I told him that he is the boss of his own muscles, and we are going to teach them how to listen to him again."
She had taken the deepest, most painful lessons of her own trauma and weaponized them for good. She was actively passing the armor down to the next generation.
