45 years later

I recently returned from an amazing weekend in the Chicago area.  Forty-five years ago I graduated from the diploma program at West Suburban Hospital School of Nursing.  Our class had not gotten together in a very long time, so this past weekend we gathered at a hotel in the area.  Sixty-one graduated in 1965.  Six are deceased.  Of the remaining fifty-five, thirty-one attended, plus one classmate who started with us but left part way through the program.  Eight husbands also came to the reunion.


The incredible thing about the reunion was that the bond forged through our common experiences and faith was still totally intact.  Each person had the chance to share with the group an outline of her life's journey.  The direction of many of those journeys was unanticipated at the outset.  Professional and personal lives went in directions that could not have been foreseen.  Amazing opportunities mixed with heartbreaking challenges. 


The group included OR nurses, ER nurses, school nurses, OB nurses, medical-surgical nurses, a hospital administrator, several who work as resource nurses available by phone, and a few who have spent the majority of their lives as stay-at-home mothers.  Some have spent many years in foreign countries.  Others have repeatedly gone on short term missions projects.  Classmates have been all over the world using their skills to help hurting people.


But, classmates have also been deeply hurt themselves by divorces, miscarriages, the death of a spouse, the death of a child, physical and mental illness in the family, and personal health issues.  Three of the classmates who attended have had breast cancer.  One who was unable to attend is currently going through chemotherapy for lymphoma. Some have mobility issues and were unable to attend.  One came in a wheelchair with the help of her husband.


As each person shared, the love and support of the group was obvious.  Anything and everything could be poured out with no fear of anyone being judgmental.  We all have been battered by life and survived.  There was no reason for pretense.


Words are inadequate to describe the spirit that pervaded our time together. As we sang our class song,  I think most of us were amazed at how relevant it was to our lives, having been written before we stepped out into the world as nurses.  Our big sister class had chosen a verse for us on which we were to base our class song.


Isaiah 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.


During my nursing days, I pray,
Give me thy perfect peace each day.
Show thy love, thy strength through me.
May I always trust in thee.


When trials come and I'm afraid,
Lord, may my mind on thee be stayed.
Often hard my way will be.
Keep me trusting, trusting thee.


When blessing come, may I recall,
That thou, O Lord, art over all.
May my heart be humble still.
Keep me centered in thy will.


Then perfect peace, my heart shall know.
Then shall my lips, with praise o'er flow.
Where ere I am, others will see,
Jesus alone living in me.