One of the most influential persons in my life is my aunt Marjorie. Aunt Marjorie works as a nurse with Nurses without Borders, a non-profit organization modelled after Doctors without Borders. From her humble beginnings as the daughter of Peruvian immigrants with very little English speaking skills, my aunt worked hard to complete her Masters in Nursing and went on to volunteer to work in the some of the poorest places across the globe. From poor sections of Asia to Africa, the pictures in her home tell the story of a brave, courageous and very caring woman that sees her life’s work as being to serve others. My Aunt Marjorie is my role model and has served to inspire me to develop values such as kindness, integrity and self-discipline as a part of my life.
Aunt Marjorie is currently 30 years old and was born in Florida. She always recalls a time when she had to struggle with two cultures. Her parents were very much culture-oriented and raised her as if she was in Peru. The spoken language at home was Spanish. As an only child, she spoke Spanish at home with her parents. Outside of the home, she spoke English. Although her parents were picking up on English language by the time she was born 18 months after their coming to the U.S, they still were more comfortable speaking Spanish and interacted with mostly Spanish people. When Aunt Marjorie brought friends from school home, she mostly had to act as an interpreter, moderating conversations from both sides if there were any expressions of confusion. Aunt Marjorie’s mother worked with a local deli business while her father worked in a factory. They did not always have all they needed, but they were extremely close as a family. Marjorie was the princess of the family.
My Aunt’s parents’ encouraged her to apply herself diligently to her studies. He father even hired a tutor summers to come to their house and coach her on her school work. He valued education highly and wanted her to have the best in life. He saw education as a means towards achieving a better standard of living. Aunt Marjorie attended elementary and middle school in Florida but then moved to live with an Uncle and his children in Texas for high school. She credited that move with opening her eyes to the need for nurses and how she would want her career to be.
During her stay in Texas, my Aunt contracted a severe flu that got her hospitalized for three weeks. During her time in the hospital, she observed how nurses performed their duties, how they interacted with patients, and how they interacted with the various health personnel that make up the healthcare team. She made friends with a nurse, Tracy, from New York, who was doing an internship at the hospital. Tracy told my Aunt Marjorie that she sees nursing more as living her “dream” of caring for people rather than as a career. According to my Aunt, Tracy said, while it is true that nursing is a career, she called it a dream because it was her dream from childhood to be able to care for people and so nursing was for her a dream come true. Aunt Marjorie said she recalled thinking at the time how anyone would consider all that hard work a dream come true.
After my Aunt was discharged from hospital, she had the privilege of helping a friend who was injured in a biking accident. While waiting for the medics and ambulance to arrive, and giving CPR to her injured friend, she felt such a sense of gratitude that she already had CPR training and a sense of relief when the ambulance arrived and picked up her friend. She released at that moment that nursing was what she wanted to do with her life. “There is something so rewarding, so fulfilling about being able to care for others that you just realize how honored you are to be able to do that” she told me once. Aunt Marjorie went back to Florida for college. She excelled in her studies and went as far as graduating with a Master’s degree in Nursing at the age of 25.
I haven’t since Aunt Marjorie in 3 years. All I have is her pictures and emails, and she calls us sometimes. Because of the nature of her work and the demand for nurses in the remote areas where she works, she has infrequent access to the internet and barely manages to make calls to her mother and father. Her mother and Father are very proud of her but worry about her because she is their only child. Aunt Marjorie’s contract with Nurses without Borders runs for four years and she is expected back in the country in the next four months. She plans to work with the teaching hospital at the University on her return. She has gathered a lot of experience on tropical diseases and some of the global cultures. She told me she wants to work in teaching capacity so that she can share her knowledge. I am looking forward to having her back. She has been a source of inspiration for me that young people can achieve meaningful things in their lives with hard work and dedication.
