Welcome!
"Are you nuts?!" is the usual reaction when people find out I left a cushy and cozy retirement to return to school and become a nurse. I loved being a lawyer and I am still surprised at how challenging it was to become a nurse. The academics were not difficult but the challenges of technology, and learning new psychomotor skills, were real - and at times frustrating.
David, my always supportive husband, located an accelerated program within a day's drive of our home and children in California. A suburb of Las Vegas, Nevada was a fun place to attend university but conquering the challenge that is Technology was a climb I did not expect. I joke about being a Luddite but temerity and hubris were not enough to keep me from weeping tears of self-pity over how to use a computer, create power point presentations, and maneuver through the class "blackboard" to post assignments and take tests.
When my Bachelor of Science (BSN) loomed large it was time to decide how best to use my new skills to fulfill my goal of service to country through service to others. We headed for Tampa, Florida, because my husband David's father, who is now deceased, was ill. Second Lt. Doyle W. Tucker, a bombardier during World War II, was shot down by the Nazis and held as a prisoner of war. The choice to serve in a Veterans' Affairs (VA) hospital was easy. I applied and was accepted.
I started work in the spinal-cord injuries unit of the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, caring for both veterans and active-duty military personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. My days were filled with joy and sorrow. Yes, patients died, but young teenagers who were paralyzed began to walk, a young soldier got married, and patients old and young discovered they could continue to live, and did, agreeing to discharge from the hospital and start their new lives.
When John, one of the doctors, jokingly asked each morning, "How's it going, Terry?" I was able to respond candidly that physically and emotionally, working as a nurse is both the most difficult and the most rewarding work I've ever done. I signed up to work for America's heroes and ended up working with them. Nurses, whose hard work and dedicated service make the rest of our lives possible, are the greatest.
During my year of service I also worked as a professor at a local college and, during the evenings, earned my Masters degree in Nursing Education (MSN). I was serious about service and knew from my research that it's not a shortage of nurses our country faces, but a shortage of professors to teach Nursing. Professors earn less than half of what nurses earn; there is no incentive to teach. I found the ideal service project for retirement. Perfect. There was only one last thing to do.
My wonderful mother, Edith, is an award-winning AIDS activist. She began to volunteer at a time when HIV/AIDS was not as well understood as it is today. One of my mother's dear friends, Edwina, went to Africa to do HIV/AIDS volunteer work and my "final frontier" was to serve abroad prior to settling down to teach. The problem, however, was that I had absolutely no idea where to begin.
To my great good fortune, one of the volunteers in the hospital heard about my dilemma and introduced me to a remarkable person, General C. William Fox, Jr., MD, the chief operating officer for Project HOPE. Dr. Fox was inspiring, encouraging, and the real deal, an American hero. I learned all about the mission of Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) and its creation over 50 years ago when Dr. Walsh, a medical officer during World War II, refused to accept the substandard conditions of those in the South Pacific and persuaded President Eisenhower to donate a hospital ship from our Navy to help others.
Project HOPE hospital ships travel the world on humanitarian missions. Project HOPE staff change the lives of others and provide relief at disaster sites after earthquakes, such as in Haiti, and after tsunamis. I prayed and prayed I would be worthy of their mission and selected for service. And that's the beginning!
Now I have to sign off to buy supplies, to scan the necessary documents, and to apply for my visa. The last week of May I leave for Vietnam, then Cambodia, and end up in Singapore in July, where my loving husband will join me to tour Singapore and Malaysia before our return to California. I consider it a privilege to be a part of the mission and ask you to pray for its success. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I will try to post regularly from the ship.
