Rest In Peace Janet

It doesn’t happen very often. To have someone around you that is always looking out for your best interest and always putting in a good word is a gift. I was a lucky enough to have two mentors. One was a biology professor in college - who I am still in contact with almost fifty years later-  and the other was my graduate school mentor - Janet -  and eventual boss at a major hospital in the Midwest. We recently had VHS tapes from 1990 transferred to digital format and they contained two interviews about the nursing automated documentation system that we implemented. Janet assigned this project to me right after she selected me as the Director of Nursing for Critical Care. At the time I didn’t think much about the significant impact this project would have on nursing care. It was one of the first - if not the first - cutting edge systems of its kind. And I have to thank her for having the confidence in me to pull it off. This made me think of her and when I googled her name yesterday I found out that she had passed away in October - just three months ago - at the age of 90! When she retired I had encouraged her to get a dog. And she did. And she was so happy to have Sammy. I got a handwritten note from Janet about ten years ago after I self published some children’s book congratulating me on the endeavor. Now I’m so sorry that I didn’t keep up with our correspondence. If I don’t have email addresses I’m less inclined to hand write notes. That was a mistake. It was another reminder that we need to share our feelings with the people who had such major impacts on our lives. So thank you Janet for your support and confidence. It made a huge difference in my life.