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Angels walk among us, said Lisa Nowalski, and Paulette Butler is one of them. 

Nowalski and Butler met in 2014 when Nowalski was admitted to Sentara Obici Hospital. Butler is a housekeeper at the hospital, and has a reputation of going above and beyond for her patients.

Butler is almost always heard singing or humming to her patients, and she often leaves uplifting messages on the whiteboards in their rooms. Butler said it’s common for her to stay in touch with patients after they leave the hospital, and she texts most of them at least twice a day; once in the morning, and once at night.

“I don’t think that I realized that she was housekeeping,” Nowalksi said. “I just knew that she was my angel.”

After losing touch for a few years, Nowalski posted on Facebook asking if anyone could help her reconnect with Butler. The post quickly gained traction and garnered over 40 comments from Butler’s past and current patients and colleagues about their relationships with her.

“I think what was the outstanding part of that post was all of the comments and all of the love that came back,” Nowalski said. 

Butler’s best friend’s daughter saw the post and was able to get them reconnected. 

Nowalski took Butler out to a quiet lunch where they were able to catch up on life and talk about their families. 

“I just want her to know how grateful I was for her,” Nowalski said.

Butler’s previous supervisor, Sandra Smith, and her current supervisor, Tamara Spires, both said patients request Butler if she isn’t assigned to their unit.

Butler recently celebrated her 35th anniversary with Sentara Obici and said she never considered leaving. Even now, as a part-time worker, Butler requested her interview with the Suffolk News-Herald be done during one of her days off because she couldn’t leave her patients.

When she’s not working, Butler volunteers at nursing homes and thrift stores, helping out in any way she can. She also takes care of her sister, who is an amputee, and looked after her husband before he died of thyroid cancer in 2022. 

“I just love people,” Butler said. “I love the Lord and he just leads me. Everyday I ask him, ‘Which way you want me to go?’ and I just follow his path.”

Her favorite song to sing to patients is called, “I Don’t Have Nothing to Depend on but God’s Word,” and she said she’s able to sense what her patients need from her in that moment.

“When I go into a patient’s room, I don’t know why or what it is, I speak and I introduce myself, and I let them know what I’ve come to do,” Butler said. “Whatever they say out of their mouth, I just get a feeling for what they need.”

Nowalski personally experienced the positive effects of Butler’s singing; she could see her heart rate go down on the monitor while Butler was in her room. She said it’s hard to put into words the comfort Butler brought her while she was sick.

Everyone knows the sound of Butler’s voice and her humming so much that when she collapsed in a patient’s bathroom prior to having surgery, the patient knew something was wrong because Butler had stopped humming her song.

In addition to singing and leaving positive messages on the whiteboard, Butler also gives her patients wheelchair rides, feeds them, bathes them, and anything else they need from her.

Butler continues to shine outside of her patient’s rooms.

Sandra and Spires said Butler has always brought immense joy to other employees and has never complained about her job once in her 35 years. Spires joked that once Butler fully retires, they want her to train new hires.

Butler’s been offered promotions, but she never took them because they would take her away from her patients, she said. 

“It’s amazing that someone can just be there and lift you up at your lowest moment in your life,” Nowalski said. “I keep saying that she was my constant. I call her my angel, and [my husband’s] like, she was your constant.”