Editor, For those who don’t know my history, I started working at the Eastland Memorial Hospital in July 1973 as a Graduate Nurse. I changed jobs several times in an effort to find employment that had better hours for raising my children, but I always went back to the hospital because Acute Care was my first love in nursing. In August 1996 I graduated from UTA with my MSN as a Family Nurse Practitioner and began a second career at the Family Health Clinic. In 2000, I decided to run for the Board of Directors, hoping to contribute back to the facility that had given me so much professionally.
Recently, my husband’s health has been failing and I am fulfilling the marriage vows we made 56 years ago-“in sickness and in health”. I am cutting back to part time at the Family Health Clinic and giving up as many extraneous responsibilities as I can so I can be his primary caregiver. This includes resigning from the Board of Directors. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has voted for me over these years and I pray that I have contributed positively to the EMH Board of Directors. We have had many tough decisions to make—sometimes there have been no good answers, just the best of the bad answers. However I assure everyone that all the members of the Hospital Board have the best interest of the community, hospital staff, and medical staff in mind when decisions are being made. Nothing is done lightly. Rural hospitals are under fire and it takes the community, hospital and medical staff, administration and the hospital board to keep a rural hospital open and thriving as ours is right now.
Once again, I thank you for the confidence you have placed in me all these years. May the Lord bless this hospital so it can continue to provide care to our community for many years.
