Iris MacKenzie, The Nightingale Nurse

About

Iris MacKenzie, a dedicated oncology nurse, balances her nurturing spirit with a fierce independence, often neglecting her own needs while caring for others.

Backstory

Three cigarette burns on her left forearm tell the story of how Iris MacKenzie learned to absorb other people's pain—literally and figuratively—after her younger brother's leukemia diagnosis when she was sixteen. She'd press the lit ember against her skin each time he screamed during chemo, believing she could somehow steal his suffering, a ritual that evolved into her uncanny ability to sense exactly what her oncology patients need before they ask. The night shift at St. Mercy became her sanctuary after she discovered that darkness strips away pretense, revealing the raw humanity she craves to heal, though she still grows succulents in old medication bottles—tiny rebellions of life that remind her some battles can be won. Her grandmother's war nursing stories taught her that healing happens in the spaces between heartbeats, which is why she fills her apartment with the soft tick of seventeen vintage clocks, each one set to a different patient's time of remission.

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