Barb had been gone over a week before we learned of her passing. It wasn’t a surprise, as we’d watched her bravely deal with ovarian cancer for several years. Kathy and I were on the South Shore from Chicago to Michigan City when she got a text announcing Barbie is gone, coming from Linda, one of my treasured Taubman nursing trio. We’d never called Barb that, but apparently Linda did. To Linda’s text was attached the Facebook post from Barb’s daughter Samatha.
Saddened and shocked, we awaited details of her memorial service, and remembered. She was Barb Gilson all the years I knew her, but she took back her maiden name in her later years. She’s not related to James Angell of Angell Hall, but her grandfather earned his place in Michigan history by sculpting the bronze pumas that guard the entrance to the Natural History Museum.
My late aunt was a professor of psychiatric nursing and taught me early on to respect nurses, listen to them, and treat them kind. Nurses saved my ass many times during my residency, and I learned in my rheumatology clinic that such grace can play out on the outpatient stage. My team of 3 angels took a while to assemble, Barb being the first, joining shortly after I got started. Cora then Linda would join later and proceed to protect me and my patients, saving me from myself more times than I can recall. Such was our bond, I made sure we gathered at my house at least once a year, right up till last year when I cancelled, concerned that my flu might affect Barb. On that South Shore train, I was composing an email to arrange a spring make-up. That’s moved to summer now, without Barb, but proceeding, nonetheless. Here are the girls last year sometime:
That’s Linda on the left, Barb in the middle, and Cora on the right. Who wouldn’t want to work with such babes!
Much of my motivation to write this is to provide a link to Barb’s obituary. Barb was forever modest, and it must have passed on to her daughter. Her death announcement is on Facebook, but not everyone can access that. Samantha never put her mom’s obit on-line. Fortunately, there’s a very nice remembrance in the bulletin for her memorial service. Here it is:
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