In Death a Desire to Live

by Nick on July 25, 2009
in Life, Love, Mind, Soul

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My Auntie Jan

“Looking out the door I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners. Parading in a wake of sad relations as their shoes fill up with water” ~Jeff Buckley~

Yesterday my uncle passed away. He had been sick and suffering for a very long time and is in a much better place now. My heart goes out to my Auntie Jan though who is one of the sweetest, kindest, most inspiring women I have ever met, and I’m so happy that she is family.

Auntie Jan is one of 9 children in a very close knit Irish family. She grew up with my mom and her other siblings on the same street in Cleveland, Ohio with dozens and dozens of her cousins. When she was 18 she went to live in a convent. And there a big part of her story really began.

The sisters needed someone trained in first aid in order to care for any of the nuns that got sick. So they paid for her to get her training. It kind of stuck. And she eventually left the convent and started to study to become a nurse. I think the reason she excelled so much in nursing is because she just naturally cares so much for people. As the oldest of nine she helped raise all of her brothers and sisters her whole life.

But she didn’t stop there, she just kept gaining nursing degrees one by one by one. And that little hospital she started at she never left. She has been at Fairview hospital for her entire career. And through the decades as she built relationships and cared for patients became very beloved by nurses, doctors and staff, because she never stopped caring.

And so within the last year or so, she became the first women president in the history of Fairview Hospital. An achievement that inspires out to the most distant cousin and down to the nieces and nephews of our family. And while I mourn for the loss her husband and my uncle. I know that she loved him very much. I was told that last night she had them bring a bed in to his room and she put her scrubs on and slept right next to him through the night.

Life is short. And I am inspired to live my life to the fullest every single day because we only get one shot at this.

There are no second chances. Every moment that goes by is a moment we will never see again.

It is my sincere hope that I can one day be an inspiration to my family. To my cousins and my nieces and nephews like my Auntie Jan. To live my life in away that makes it evident that my nature is to care. To love. To hope.