Southampton Hospital and a Life Full Circle

What hand has fate delt you? I think of the circle of life and how it has unfolded. What brought each of us here just as we are? How did our great, great, great, great, grandparents meet, and fall in love? And then our great, great, great grandparents? And then our great, great grandparents? And on and on and on……throughout time from the very beginning until now. How did all of those wheels, through all of those generations, start turning and finally lead us here? Even statistically the miracle of our individual conception and birth is amazing. I have heard the odds of each of us being here exactly as we are is one in four-hundred trillion. It leads me to believe that each of us have a unique and special purpose in this world.

This week it will be 100 years since my mother was born in Southampton Hospital - an English father and an Alsatian mother. My mother graduated from Southampton High School and attended nursing school at Southampton Hospital. For many years her class picture hung proudly in the hallowed halls there. She became a registered nurse and worked in Southampton Hospital. My father, born at home in Sag Harbor - while rushing to a fire as a volunteer firefighter- fell and broke his ankle, which landed him in Southampton Hospital. A visit to the OR, screws and plates and a serious break that created a life-long limp, enabled fate to play its arbitrary hand. My mother, young, efficient and recently capped, was his nurse. They dated and married and welcomed their six children all in Southampton Hospital. Many of her grandchildren were born there as well. And ten years ago, my mother breathed her last breath in Southampton Hospital. Full circle from birth to death in Southampton Hospital.

I believe her years studying to be a nurse, her time away -though not very far away-from her family home-were the finest years of her life. She remembered running down to the ocean when she and her new friends had time off. There were outings to the Southampton Cinema and horseback riding. It was as if the door of life was swung wide open to her there. She loved being a nurse. She loved learning and her freedom and her new found friends. Southampton Hospital helped to shape her life and became part of her identity in this world. I ponder what are the odds of all of that coming to be. What if my father hadn’t fallen on his way to the fire? What if my mother decided to become a teacher rather than a nurse? The likelihood of each event falling into place is utterly remarkable.

Each time I visit the hospital I tell someone there-a nurse, lab tech, security, a person in the elevator- a small part of that story- just so a little piece of her spirit is breathed back into the air there and she is remembered. When I walk the halls of the original sections of the hospital, I think of her footsteps that remain there, the joy she felt captured there, the smiles and laughs and the difference she made as a loving and caring nurse. I feel so grateful that that was part of her life.

Many of our friends and acquaintances moms, and dads, share similar stories of the time they spent there learning and caring for the people from our area.

So, thank you Southampton Hospital for being an important part of our community and my life story – many of our life’s stories – and happy heavenly 100th birthday to my angel of a mom.

I’m wondering how did your life story unfold?