The strange twist in life’s Journey
My mother graduated high school and the following year I was born. There went her dreams of becoming an English teacher. For years I heard about those dreams and felt her regret coming from every pore.
My mom worked at many jobs always striving to do the best work that can be done. I can still here her saying that “any job worth doing was worth doing well.”
As I said, she worked at many jobs. There was the shop that sold sandwiches to stores. So she had to be there early in the morning. Walking unsafe streets in the dark. She also cleaned houses. This job she took pride in but kept pushing me to stay in school because she stated “I would make a lousy domestic“, and boy was she right!
Years went by and I grew up and went away to nursing school. As I have said before, the work was very hard and the pressure was great to complete the course. Every time I would call home wanting some sympathy, I would hear the refrain, “if all I had to do is study and go to school it should be easy.”
I did finish nursing school and there was great pride in the family about my accomplishment. So it shocked me when my mom, the long denied English teacher, announced when was going back to school to become, drum roll please ….. a nurse!
I can’t tell you what it felt like hearing my dear mother complain about how hard it was. With tongue in cheek I was able to chafe her for complaining.
Here I was the daughter. A new RN giving advise to my mom and really coming from a place of authority. Let me tell you as good as that was, it felt even better to see my mom finish and becoming a licensed Practical Nurse.
My mom had always wanted to be a teacher but she excelled at nursing. She was smart and aced the scholastic part. But her true gift was her ability to make a patient feel safe and cared for.
Life has a way of taking you on many twists and turns. But sometimes the destination reached is better than expected!