Our Story

It all began in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

Stephen was on a 24-hour call shift for the neurosurgery service, and Irene was a senior resident in the PICU finishing her day shift. When Irene spotted an exhausted, frantic resident outside her workroom in surgical scrubs, she approached him with a Snickers bar—just as any good pediatrician would do. Stephen lit up, thanked her, and juggled a phone to his ear while texting on another and repeatedly silencing his endlessly beeping pager.

For the next three months, Stephen tried to get a date with the girl who had saved his life with a Snickers in the PICU, bringing her coffee in the afternoons. Irene, however, insisted she was too busy for a date—until one morning when the overnight junior residents sent her a picture of a box of croissants from her favorite local French bakery, which appeared on her desk at 4 a.m. Stephen had rushed to pick them up the night before when the store was closing, just so she could enjoy them for breakfast.

La vie est faite de petits bonheurs...

La vie est faite de petits bonheurs...