The nurse at Hooper's deathbed is Elizabeth, his former fiancee.
Not much mention of Elizabeth is made at this point in the story, other than to name her as the nurse. This may be because it is more important for Hooper's personal story arc for her to simply be present, rather than to really do much of anything.
Hooper's choice to wear the mysterious veil, obscuring his face, comes as much of a surprise to...
The nurse at Hooper's deathbed is Elizabeth, his former fiancee.
Not much mention of Elizabeth is made at this point in the story, other than to name her as the nurse. This may be because it is more important for Hooper's personal story arc for her to simply be present, rather than to really do much of anything.
Hooper's choice to wear the mysterious veil, obscuring his face, comes as much of a surprise to Elizabeth as it does to everyone else. Like others, she asks Hooper to remove it for her, appealing to their personal relationship. This was probably meant to fully round out the depiction of Hooper's resolution, showing that no common or earthly temptation was enough to change his mind. However, Elizabeth comes to fear the veil as others do, and breaks off the engagement when she sees that the veil will always separate her from Hooper. Hooper finds it sad that a piece of cloth should have this effect.
Elizabeth's presence at his bedside as he dies, with her affection for him having "endured in secret" tells us that she never stopped caring for Hooper, and while the veil had a powerful effect on his life, some people still saw him for who he was and were not completely superficial about it. It also signifies that the veil had a permanent isolating effect, preventing Hooper from having things that would have been available to him whenever he wanted, had he taken off the veil.
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