On a typical work day Vicki Parker takes about 18,000 steps, roughly eight or nine miles covering the sweep and symmetry of Stone Mountain Park’s 3,200 acres.
But the breadth of her dominion is not merely physical. Since 2009 Parker’s been the park’s Health Advocate Nurse. She knows at least the first name of every employee, numbering close to 1,000 during the summer’s peak season, and with some she’s privy to their innermost lives.
The park’s staffers range in age from 16 through the 80s. Parker hears about first dates, first children and divorces while also dispersing medical insurance advice and doctor recommendations. Earlier this year, she even gave a memorial service for an employee who died after a long battle with cancer.
“This job remains an evolution,” said the 63-year-old Parker. “I never know what I’m going to face day to day. I drive through that gate in the morning and say, ‘Okay Lord, I’m here.’ “
She grew up in DeLand, Fla., the youngest of three children. From the seventh grade on there was no question about her calling, when classmates told each other, “go to Vicki, she’ll fix it.”
She came to Atlanta in September 1971, with a full scholarship to Grady Hospital’s nursing school. That same year she met her future husband Lloyd, to whom she’s now been married 47 years. As a decisive foreshadowing their first date was at Stone Mountain, a time so long ago the famous carving wasn’t yet finished.
She worked 29 years as a nurse at four hospitals before the park hired her as its first-ever health-related staffer.
She was intrigued with the job description calling for a “faith community nurse,” a movement originating out of Chicago in the mid 1980s. Though essentially rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Parker said this doesn’t restrict whom she treats or relates too.
“Here at the park I deal with people of every religion and no religion,” she said. “Some people don’t even know what they are, and if they want we talk about that.
She said she don’t prescribe medication and she’s not a licensed counselor.
“This is hands-on nursing, nursing for the whole person which includes intentional care of the spirit.”
She usually travels by foot — including the 1.3-mile trek up the mountain at least once a week — because she meets more people that way. This column isn’t long enough to cover even a smattering of her weekly chores. Her day-to-day schedule can include walking groups, meditation, sound therapy, “spa days,” and small-group talks about relieving stress and getting better sleep.
But there’s also the veteran employee who had stage 4 cancer. She spent his final months in frequent one-on-one conversations. Last month a 25-year-old ticketing staffer died unexpectedly, and she consoled bereaved co-workers.
“Two or three times a week I see somebody in crisis, a medical crisis, relationship crisis, something like that,” she said. “When people invite you into the darkest days of their lives it’s a sacred time. I’m grateful they trust me.”
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