Editor's Notes
Nurses are ‘angels on Earth’
Sunday, May 17, 2009
At the fourth annual Celebrating Nurses luncheon in May, we celebrated nurses as they deserved — with open hands and open hearts. We applauded the more than 230 nurses who were nominated for this year’s ajcjobs Nursing Excellence Awards. We honored their careers and were touched by the stories of this year’s winners: Mary Lynne Berg, Jo-Anne Booker, Donna Chambers, Laura Hochwalt, Rueleen Lavergne, Christine Miles, Barbara Negelow, Chun (Maria) Seo, Bonnie Shore and Tomas Vela.
Thanks to B98.5 FM morning personality Vikki Locke, the event’s keynote speaker, we also celebrated countless other nurses whose names we didn’t know — nurses Locke had witnessed acting as “angels on earth” throughout her life. She spoke of her cousin, who was born without functioning kidneys but wasn’t scared to go to the hospital because “her family” of nurses was there to play and sing with her. Those same nurses all came to her funeral, Locke said.
Barry Williams/AJC Special
Vikki Locke, B98.5 FM morning personality speaks at Celebrating Nurses-Nursing Excellence Awards Luncheon.
Barry Williams/AJC Special
Tomas Vela enjoys his video during the Celebrating Nurses awards lunch.
After Locke miscarried, it was a nurse who told her she had the right to grieve and feel loss. By listening, that nurse helped her. Later, when a blood clot compromised Locke’s immune system, a nurse told her to take care of herself, so she took three months off, went to the beach and wrote a book.
“Anyone who doesn’t believe in angels has never met a nurse,” Locke said. “Nurses have made me laugh, given me a shoulder to cry on and saved me. All I can say is, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ ”
Locke’s words reminded us of the countless ways that nurses grace our lives — and why we celebrate them.
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