A Rockford group of nurses are honoring their colleagues who’ve been relieved of their duties.
Debbie Green is a registered nurse with over 40 years of experience. She is a part of The Forest City Nurse Honor Guard. This group attend funerals of nurses who have died. These types of organizations exist across the country.
She said she first heard of nurse honor guards after a 27-year-old Florida nurse died from a car accident. The nurse was from Rockford.
“And I heard about this nurse, and that she had had this nurse Honor Guard come to her funeral,” Green said. “And I thought, ‘what in the world is that?’ And can somebody please tell me any information about that? And so, I started doing some research, because I knew at that moment in my life that this was something that we needed in Rockford.”
So, she started it almost two years ago. It now has about 70 members.
Bobbi Smith was a nurse for over six decades. She is now retired. She said her fellow nurses deserve to be honored.
“It just inspired in me something in my heart and soul that I would want to partake in and be a part of,” she explained, “to recognize my fellow peers and nurses for the years of you know their lives, they care for people.”
Green said she checks the obituaries every day to see if any nurses have died. She first starts with Rockford, then she looks at Belvidere, DeKalb, Rochelle, Mount Morris, Sterling, Dixon, Freeport and Beloit.
After she finds a former nurse, she reaches out to the funeral home to see if it is OK to honor them.
Green said the most impactful part of their service happens at the end. This free tribute lasts for about seven minutes.
“We do a final roll call, and so we'll say, Nurse Betty, please report for duty,” she explained. “And then we ring a triangle, and then we say, Nurse Betty, we release you of your earthly duties. We'll take it from here. And that's when we blow out the light, the nightingale lamp, and then present it to the family member.”
The nightingale lamp pays homage to Florence Nightingale, a British nurse who worked to reform the quality of healthcare.
Smith said she’s experienced the warmth of a nurse guard.
“I had a very dear cousin of mine pass away, and I went to Ohio for her funeral,” Smith recounted. “We were in the church, Catholic Church, waiting for things to begin, and I looked over my shoulder, and the honor guard from Ohio was there for her. I mean, it was just such a blessing to me. And of course, I had to go and meet these people and hug them.”
Green said the organization also honors nurses who are still alive. This is called a living tribute. This could include ones in hospice. They will place a blanket over the nurse.
“We say, 'we'd like to cover you with our love, just as you covered your patients with your love,'" Green explained, "and we give them an honorary certificate."
Green said the group wants to do more living tributes by showing their respects to nurses who are in long-term care facilities.
Until then, they will continue to be a source of solace for the families who have lost loved ones.
