Hello:
I met my wife in 1974 when we were in college and she was working on getting her nursing degree. Her long and successful RN career comes to an end this July 18th.
Sue started in NICU, the unit where they provide intensive care for dangerously premature babies or newborns with life threatening conditions. Some newborns were so health compromised they remained in the unit for months.
I used to meet Sue for lunch at the hospital. One time she was still attending to some business when I got there. I was looking inside this sealed off glass room where she was in. I remember her picking up this premature baby and showing it to me through the glass. The baby was so tiny it fit into the palms of her hands!
I especially remember one of Sue's patients, an extremely premature boy named Jake. Early '80s. Sue cared for him for a year! I'll always remember Sue telling me how day by day he was getting healthier and stronger and that he would be discharged soon, and how he would smile and kick his legs with joy when he saw her at the beginning of her shift. The two of them had gotten very close. I remember the phone ringing one night at 2AM. These kinds of calls are never good. Completely unexpectedly Jake had died! I vividly remember Sue breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably in her pillow, absolutely devastated with the news.
In 1981 Sue took care of two premature twins. They were in NICU for months. Fast forward about 20 years and Sue was working in Labor and Delivery. A young mother had just delivered premature twins. The last name sounded familiar so Sue mentioned she took care of premature twins with the same last name in 1981. The new mother was one of those twins. Yeah really! This was huge news, even in the San Francisco Bay Area metropolis of 8 million people. It was in both the San Jose Mercury newspaper and the ABC television news. What an amazing memory, eh? As an aside, people wrote Letters to the Editor (this was pre-internet as we know it). I still remember one writer making a comment that based on my wife's looks she must have been something 10 years old when she cared for the first set of twins. Too funny!
And finally, as Sue approached her final career years, she was on the team who delivered our granddaughter.
We will be married 45 years this August 6th. I am so proud of her. She is the best wife ever!
Scott
A young Sue, brand new to nursing, doing a "modeling gig" for the hospital brochure. Photo circa 1976 or 1977.
The twins story. Pictures from the San Jose Mercury News and KGO news.
Sue and our granddaughter.
I met my wife in 1974 when we were in college and she was working on getting her nursing degree. Her long and successful RN career comes to an end this July 18th.
Sue started in NICU, the unit where they provide intensive care for dangerously premature babies or newborns with life threatening conditions. Some newborns were so health compromised they remained in the unit for months.
I used to meet Sue for lunch at the hospital. One time she was still attending to some business when I got there. I was looking inside this sealed off glass room where she was in. I remember her picking up this premature baby and showing it to me through the glass. The baby was so tiny it fit into the palms of her hands!
I especially remember one of Sue's patients, an extremely premature boy named Jake. Early '80s. Sue cared for him for a year! I'll always remember Sue telling me how day by day he was getting healthier and stronger and that he would be discharged soon, and how he would smile and kick his legs with joy when he saw her at the beginning of her shift. The two of them had gotten very close. I remember the phone ringing one night at 2AM. These kinds of calls are never good. Completely unexpectedly Jake had died! I vividly remember Sue breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably in her pillow, absolutely devastated with the news.
In 1981 Sue took care of two premature twins. They were in NICU for months. Fast forward about 20 years and Sue was working in Labor and Delivery. A young mother had just delivered premature twins. The last name sounded familiar so Sue mentioned she took care of premature twins with the same last name in 1981. The new mother was one of those twins. Yeah really! This was huge news, even in the San Francisco Bay Area metropolis of 8 million people. It was in both the San Jose Mercury newspaper and the ABC television news. What an amazing memory, eh? As an aside, people wrote Letters to the Editor (this was pre-internet as we know it). I still remember one writer making a comment that based on my wife's looks she must have been something 10 years old when she cared for the first set of twins. Too funny!
And finally, as Sue approached her final career years, she was on the team who delivered our granddaughter.
We will be married 45 years this August 6th. I am so proud of her. She is the best wife ever!
Scott
A young Sue, brand new to nursing, doing a "modeling gig" for the hospital brochure. Photo circa 1976 or 1977.
The twins story. Pictures from the San Jose Mercury News and KGO news.
Sue and our granddaughter.
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