Like mother, like daughters: Georgia family’s journey into nursing together
Twins Mary Kate Harris and McKenna Roberts didn’t just follow in their mother’s footsteps. They built their careers around caring for families at the very beginning of life.
At Northeast Georgia Medical Center, the three women are nurses in connected roles, caring for mothers and newborns at different stages. For the twins, now 32, nursing is a calling shaped by their close-knit family — especially their mother, Sarah Rushton, who has worked at the hospital since 1984.
Sarah has spent 42 years at the hospital in labor and delivery, helping bring new babies into the world. McKenna works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with preemies and other babies needing special attention, while Mary Kate works in the mother-baby unit, supporting both mothers and newborns in the critical first hours after birth.
The three each work three 12-hour shifts a week. Sarah and Mary Kate work nights. McKenna works days. At shift change, they make time for a quick check-in.
As college seniors, the twins trained at the medical center and joined the staff after graduation. More than a decade later, they’re both mothers of two and still at the hospital where they were born five minutes apart.
“It’s truly one of the most amazing experiences ever, not even just me having my own kids, but seeing it through other parents,” Mary Kate said. “I’m just reminded of God’s goodness and miracles every day.”
The closeness of the three doesn’t stop at the hospital doors. The twins live next door to each other. Their parents are within walking distance, and their older brother, Luke, and his family live about an hour away.
“That was the dream,” Mary Kate said. “Thankfully, that all worked out.”
Weekly Bible studies bring multiple generations together in the house of the twins’ 82-year-old grandmother. With a large number of participants under 7, the gatherings can be loud but fun and a great chance to connect.
“I need my family, especially after having kids,” Mary Kate said. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”
That closeness developed early.
Growing up, their father drove Mary Kate and McKenna to the hospital to have lunch with their mom when she worked weekend day shifts. The twins also tagged along to hospital staff events and charity walks, learning the rhythms of a place that would later become their workplace.
“I think they naturally gravitated toward it,” Sarah said of the twins’ nursing careers. “They saw the joy in it.”
That sense of purpose runs through the family in which nursing has long been a favorite career choice.
When Sarah was a toddler, her grandmother, a registered nurse, was credited with saving her life after she choked and stopped breathing, clearing her airway.
Years later, tragedy would only deepen the family’s understanding of what nursing and caring mean. Sarah’s 15-year-old sister Naomi was critically injured in a head-on collision. Doctors told the family that Naomi suffered from permanent brain damage and would likely never walk or talk again. But with intensive rehabilitation and the steady support of Sarah and other family members, she returned to school within a year.
As for them, Mary Kate and McKenna have evolved from fierce competitors in high school sports, something they attribute to their “wise” decision to attend different colleges.
“Now we’re best friends,” McKenna said. “We get to share a life together.”
Their mother was a constant presence, working night shifts, then sleeping in the car as their dad drove sometimes hundreds of miles to attend the twins’ college basketball games. They were determined not to miss those important moments.
“She showed us how to do it,” McKenna said.
All three women say nursing can be demanding, but the moments that stay with them are the ones they sometimes get to share — especially when their schedules align and they can care for families together.
Even after four decades, those moments still resonate with Sarah.
“When the baby is born and the parents just break down crying with joy, that never gets old,” Sarah said. “I am blessed beyond belief.”
