Dear MGH Family,

With the holiday season now fully upon us and the end of the year right around the corner, I wanted to pause to share with you my deep appreciation for everything you do, every day. During 2021, our health care community continued to face many challenges, and the simple – yet all too real and sometimes overwhelming – fact that we are all weary from the pandemic and how it has affected us on a global, national and personal level. And now, we must again pull together to face the impact of the omicron variant, which threatens to further destabilize our hospital and will test our resiliency as humans as well as health care providers.

Yet, despite these daunting obstacles, you continue to show courage, commitment, and compassion every day, day after day. You remain a shining beacon of hope to our patients and their families. You selflessly provide and support expert, compassionate – truly amazing – care. With each encounter, you sow the seeds of a brighter, healthier, happier future.

Today, I’m honored to direct your attention to the MGH main entrance where the daughter of one of our patients has planted her own seeds to express appreciation to our Mass General family. When her father was admitted to the MGH earlier this week, Nantucket resident Hafsa Lewis wanted to focus on something positive and turned to what she knows best – floral design. Hafsa introduced this “flower flash” – an elaborate art installation created from more than 2,000 blooms – as a way to share her mantra: “flowers grow through dirt and are born beautiful.” Together with her two sisters, Saadia and Sofi Lewis, they dedicated this installation in honor of their father. To add to this special story, both Hafsa and Saadia – an Emergency Department nurse – are staff members at our affiliate institution, Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

flower flash at MGH main entrance

This bountiful greeting will now welcome our employees, patients and visitors for the next few days – a fitting display to show life’s beauty as well as its fragility, a relationship we see in many forms every day.

During this holiday season and in the year ahead, it is my hope that we will continue to plant and cultivate the seeds of optimism, grow and strengthen our community, and make a marked difference in the lives of those around us.

I wish you the happiest of holidays with time for each of you to recharge and restore in whatever ways are best for you. And may 2022 be a more peaceful, healthy and joyful year for us all!

David F.M. Brown, MD
President, Massachusetts General Hospital

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