My Dream Came True!

Sometimes dreams really do come true! I can attest to that because when I was forty one years old one of my lifelong dreams came true. It all started when I was about five or six year old.

It started like this, because momma worked in the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill when we were sick or needed to go to the dentist we could go to the clinic provided by the mill. The clinic had a long church pew bench along one wall and chairs along two other walls. At the end of the church pew bench was a set of double doors that were never closed and you could see inside the treatment room that had all sort of medical paraphernalia lining the walls and a metal table in the middle of the room. Across from the church pew bench was a glassed in office with a receptionist who sat behind the window typing and taking the names of those who came in to see either the doctor or the dentist.

My favorite place to sit in the clinic was at the end of the bench! I sat there so I could watch around the end of the bench through the double doors at everything that was happening in the treatment room and I could also watch across the room where Laverne the receptionist did her work. I guess you could say I was noisy! One of my favorite places during that time of my life was sitting in the clinic watching all that was going on there!

The nurse was so beautiful in her white starched dress and cap with white hose and white shoes. She wore dark red lipstick, which contrasted vividly against all the white she wore! However, she was fierce looking and serious. She never smiled and when she spoke her voice sounded sharp and commanding. Everything about her was terrifying to my young mind! Lavern was just the opposite. She was dark skinned with long black hair and soft brown eyes and she always smiled and was always helpful! I wanted to be just like Lavern!

I visited the clinic often, I usually went there to see the dentist or the have my throat checked. It seemed I always had a sore throat! I had terrible allergies and sinus drainage but back then not much was known about treating allergies. I also had untreated seasonal asthma! So since I visited often and always tried for the seat on the end next to the double doors... not too hard to get because most grownups didn't even want that seat because they were squeamish. But not me... I loved to watch everything going on in there! So as I watched the beautiful nurse and then the sweet nature'd receptionist. I came to a conclusion that someday I wanted to be a nurse. But when I became a nurse I would be sweet like Lavern!

Life happens and I soon forgot my dream. I quit school in the 10th grade and married soon after that. I got a GED diploma a month before my son graduated from High school and felt very proud that I had finally finished High School. About a year after my son graduated one of his friends dropped by one day! She was in nursing school and was telling me about her classes. I told her that I had always wanted to become a nurse.

"Then why don't you?", she asked.

"I'm too old now!" I replied.

"You are not!", she answered back.

She began telling me about a pilot program at the local hospital that taught a class for LPN's and suggested I apply. The very thought of it was frightening. Considering how long it took me to get up the nerve to get my GED , nursing school seemed like the most frightening thing I'd ever considered.

My youngest daughter was in middle school at that time and I learned about a program at her school that needed parents for volunteers to do nurse duty for half days. The nursing director from the hospital was coming to do a training class for the volunteers, so that the parents who volunteered would be somewhat qualified to help the children. I volunteered, took the class and after the training asked the nursing director about the pilot program. She told me I needed to come by her office and pick up an application fill it out and bring it back to her and they would look at my application! If I was considered for the program they would then call me in for an interview. I went by and picked up the application that very same day. A few days after I returned my application I was called in for an interview and was accepted into the program.

In 1985 I passed my licensing exam and became an LPN. I went to work at the hospital where I did my training and was extremely proud and happy to go to work each day.

During my first six months as a nurse I was hit, kicked, pinched and cussed out by a demented little old lady, peed on, pooped on, puked on, and learned just how hard my chosen profession is. Nevertheless I always smiled and treated people with respect and kindness just like Lavern the receptionist in my youth had done. I worked hard and loved every minute of it.

I often say to myself and to others that I would never work as hard doing anything other than nursing. It is and has been one of the joys of my life to serve others through nursing.

I'm often reminded of the verse in Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Dreams really do come true.....Even though they may take a very long time to happen, I believe God himself plants those dreams in the heart of a little child and He himself watches over those dreams and brings then to fruition! So, beloved Keep on dreaming!