Jay Kerner,Source Publications 

My wife catches a lot of grief being married to me. Imagine your spouse comes home, tells you he wants to quit his job and build a drive-in, a crazy metal house, start a newspaper, or…well you get the idea. How supportive is your significant other? I am lucky. I found the one that gets me or at least tolerates me.     Maybe she thought she was going to change me.  I probably have changed some. Most days my socks make it to the hamper. Although, I sometimes still leave the toilet seat up. Let’s say that “long suffering” is often used to describe her as it pertains to yours truly.    I got a call last month informing me that Jeannie was being awarded one of the two monthly Heartland MVP awards at the hospital. She works as a nurse in the Center for Pain Management. This is a big deal. With over 3,000 employees, less than 1% get this honor each year. There couldn’t be a more deserving recipient. 

Jeannie started at Sisters Hospital right out of nursing school. She worked several years in the Recovery Room. If you or a loved one have ever woken up scared and disoriented after surgery, quite possibly it was she that held your hand, got you a warm blanket and eased your transition back to consciousness.    Jeannie is old school when it comes to nursing. She knows she gets better information talking to her patients than reading their charts and prefers rectal thermometers to digital. Maybe that’s just at home?.    When our kids got older she came to me with the idea that she would enjoy being a school nurse. She liked the idea of having the same schedule they did.     I called Jo Stokes. She was the no-nonsense nurse at Central High School when I was there for some reason she put up with quite a bit of my nonsense.  I told her about Jeannie’s interest. Though she had never met my wife, she said she had serious questions about anyone that would marry me fair enough. Jo gave Jeannie an interview, and hired her in spite of her obvious poor judgment of character.    She started in Elementary Schools and was assigned where our kids were through their times at Noyes and Bessie Ellison. When the job at Central opened, Jo offered it to Jeannie. She was reluctant to take it at first. Her boss told her that after holding that spot herself for several years, there was no-one better for the job. The fact that our oldest was a Sophomore there and our youngest would follow in a couple of years clinched the deal. She loved the job, especially the kids.    In elementary schools it is about heights and weights, checking for head lice and assorted knee scrapes and tummy aches. In High School, she found it was also part counselor and confidant. The nurse’s office was a safe haven for a lot of kids.  There was always a crowd whenever I stopped by. Some on the couch, some on cots and some cross-legged on the floor. She may have been a little lenient with her Blue Passes. The kids knew they could come with stuff they couldn’t talk to  anyone else about.     During summers she started working  part time in the Pain Clinic at the hospital to keep her busy her idea and out of the malls my idea. When our youngest left for college, Central wasn’t the same. The hospital offered her a regular spot and she took it.    When we attended the reception for her award last week she was completely surprised. She thought she was headed to a staff meeting. She even carried her ever present half gallon mug of Diet Coke how appropriate.     All the big wigs were there and said wonderful things. Pictures were taken for other publications. The publicity was in my opinion well deserved, but it will make it harder to get through HyVee unscathed. I swear we can’t get through without a current or former patient stopping to tell her how much she helped them.    Each spring around graduation time a card or two shows up from a former student telling Jeannie she is the reason they went into nursing.    She is a world class listener. She is compassionate and non-judgmental. People take comfort in talking to her. Even her friends that listen for a living call Jeannie when they need to talk.    On our first date, I saw a picture  hanging in her parent’s home from when she won a baby contest at a local lodge. The newspaper caption read, “Baby Named Moose Queen”. That’s what I have affectionately called her ever since. I’ve known all along how wonderful she is. It’s extra special when that recognition comes from your peers. All hail the Moose Queen!