It was an innocent photo of a mom taking a nap with her young son. But this husband’s post went viral when he told the world exactly what kind of a mother his wife was.

After a tough day at work, curling up with her kids can be all a mom needs to recharge her batteries. One such mom is Rayena Wesson, who is a nurse in Birmingham, Alabama. But when her husband posted this photo of her napping with their son Deacon on Facebook, he told the world exactly what he thought of her.

Life as a nurse can be exhausting, as 35-year-old Rayena can no doubt attest. The hours are long and the job is often rewarded with little in the way of thanks. And working in the trauma department, as she does, there’s probably not a lot that she won’t have seen.

Rayena works 14-hour shifts, and as such, surely doesn’t get to spend as much time with four-year-old Deacon as she would like. So stolen moments are precious, and presumably the nurse makes the best of their time together that she can. One such moment was captured by her 41-year-old husband, Bobby.

In a Facebook post dated November 7, 2015, the picture shows Rayena asleep on a bed. With her, is their then-nearly-two-year-old son, wrapped in her arms. In a moment of calm, Bobby felt inspired to tell the world about the type of person his wife is. Thanks to his writing skills, his words have touched nearly a million people.

As Bobby wrote in the accompanying post, “This is my wife taking a nap. In an hour she will wake up, put on her scrubs and get ready for work. The tools and items she needs to perform her job will be gathered and checked, meticulously.” And it seems that the nurse takes more care with work prep than she does with her appearance.

Bobby continued, “Her hair and make-up will be done quickly. She will complain she looks awful.” But, of course, like any devoted husband, he’s having none of it. The post goes on, “I will disagree, emphatically, and get her a cup of coffee.” A coffee, perhaps, for a quick boost before Rayena’s shift begins.

It’s not all about coffee, however. Rayena often steals a moment with her son before work. Bobby goes on, “She will sit on the couch with her legs crossed under her and try to drink it while happily playing with the toddler that’s crawling all over her.”

Image: Casey Marie via Facebook/Rayena Wesson

And neither is this precious time all about her son. It’s important, too, Rayena understands, to maintain a relationship with her husband. He says, “She will occasionally stare off blankly as we talk; silently steeling herself for the coming shift. She thinks I don’t notice.”

Then it’s off to work and Rayena’s hectic life as a trauma nurse. As Bobby describes, “She will kiss the baby, kiss me and leave to go take care of people that are having the worst day of their lives.” Worse even than those who work in the trauma unit.

“Car wrecks, gunshot wounds, explosions, burns and breaks. Professionals, pastors, addicts and prostitutes. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. It doesn’t matter who you are or what happened to you. [Rayena] will take care of you,” Bobby explained.

Having patched up and taken care of as many people as her shift will allow can, Rayena heads home again. As her husband vividly described, “She will come home 14 hours later and remove shoes that have walked through blood, bile, tears and fire from aching feet.”

Bobby continued, “Sometimes [Rayena] will not want to talk about it. Sometimes she can’t wait to talk about it. Sometimes she will laugh until she cries and sometimes she will just cry – but regardless of those sometimes she will be on time for her next shift.” As tough as it can be, then, the trauma nurse clearly loves her job.

Bobby concluded, “My wife is a nurse. My wife is a hero.” The heartfelt post to date has received almost 200,000 shares, nearly a million reactions and over 50,000 comments. Bobby’s words resonated with many people wishing to express their gratitude for what can be an undervalued and under-appreciated profession.

Likewise, the post drew attention from the mainstream media, with coverage by news site Huffington Post, the Today show and Cosmopolitan magazine. However, it’s not the only time that the mischievous writer has caught the gaze of the media.

Image: Bobby Wesson via Good Housekeeping

Bobby, it seems, enjoys pranking his wife, perhaps to relieve some of the stress of her job. In April 2017, Rayena, her husband and Deacon were due to sit for family portraits. In preparation, the prankster decided to cut his son’s hair while the nurse was working her shift one evening.

Over a text exchange with Rayena, Bobby appeared to have had an accident with the clippers and shaved part of Deacon’s head. In trying to put it right, he then shaved all of his son’s head. And in an effort to cheer his son up, he seemed to shave his own head.

It was, however, an April Fools prank and no hair had been removed from anyone’s head – it was all a photo manipulation stunt. Luckily Rayena was able to see the funny side. After all, practical jokes aren’t unusual in the Wesson’s marriage. Just like the Halloween joke Bobby played on his wife later that year.

On this occasion, Bobby took advantage of the fact that even small objects in Rayena’s car’s backup camera appear huge. He played up to the season and left her terrifying images of characters such as Pennywise from the movie IT. With them came the warning, “Always check your surroundings for safety.”

Rayena too, however, is adept at pranks. And in fact it wasn’t only media attention Bobby received off the back of his viral Facebook post. Realizing that other women had been flirting with him, together they filmed video warning them off. Shot hostage-style, the nurse held a knife near her husband’s face while he pleaded with those women to leave him alone. All tongue in cheek, of course.

In response to calling Rayena a hero, however, Bobby said on Facebook, “Those of you that know my wife know that she flinches at the word ‘hero’. She doesn’t miss an opportunity to downplay her role and tell people that she is a small part of a very large team. But she is a large part of my very small team and I am proud of her.”