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June 25, 2022
This Saturday, June 25th is my Mom's birthday.
Again...
She as been doing this a long time.
I am not allowed tell you how many times - but I can tell you that she was born the same year that Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic non-stop - and it rhymes with "nine teas".
It's a big one - trust me.
Over those many years she has lived a most interesting life.
She grew up in a small coal town in Pennsylvania and then went to a nearby nursing school after graduating high school.
After completing a three year program she moved to New York City in the early 1950s where she worked at The Mount Sinai Hospital taking care of all sorts of patients.
At one point she was assigned to the wing for "famous" people where she cared for movie stars and Mafiosas.
In NYC she had a standing invitation to the Copacabana nightclub where she got to meet Nat King Cole among others.
She spoke to Frank Sinatra on the phone when she was caring for his mom.
A couple of years later she got married to my Dad - who happened to be a spy with a Certain Intelligence Agency - and then spent the next fifteen years being a mom as the family grew to a total of six - with stops in Cyprus, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and then back to Washington DC.
Along the way we met two Presidents, two Popes and many other not so famous - but just as interesting people.
When I was finishing up my undergraduate degree in the late 1970s, she decided to go back to school to get her BA in Nursing.
When I was in graduate school she decided to get her MS in Nursing and started work in hospice care where she was at the forefront of the movement in the early 1980's as the Administrator of the Hospice of Washington.
In that role, she and her staff cared for and treated a wide range of patients regardless of their ability to pay or the nature of their illness - including those dying from AIDS.
This is where she met Princess Diana.
After getting her Master's degree in nursing she wanted to do more so she started work on her PhD in Nursing.
After she retired from the Hospice, she starting volunteering at the White House in the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives while continuing to work on her PhD.
When my Dad died of a sudden heart attack in 1995 she found herself living a life she had not planned for.
She took some time to get her bearings but eventually got back to doing things her way and completed her PhD at an age most people would be thinking of retiring.
For the past 25 years she has continued to volunteer in the community and with our church.
She also became a grandmother and great-grandmother.
Our entire family is so thankful that she is still around to be an active part of our lives.
Happy Birthday Mom
You are an amazing person who has lived an amazing life.
