An open letter from one health care worker to her mom

Mother’s Day is a time to express our gratitude to moms everywhere for the selfless care, sacrifice and guidance they provide to their children and others every day. Stephanie Lipira, a child life specialist at Advocate Children’s Hospital, credits her mother Anne Lipira, a nurse at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, for guiding and influencing her decision to pursue a career in health care. This is Stephanie’s letter to her mother.

Dear Mom,

Happy Mother’s Day! It has been quite a special month of celebrations: your birthday, National Nurses week and now, Mother’s Day. I want to wish you all the love and happiness you richly deserve on this day! You are truly one of a kind. I am lucky to have you as a mother, friend and confidant. You have taught me all about hard work, patience, kindness, perseverance, ambition, forgiveness and understanding. You have given me such a strong foundation by which to live my life and I am so thankful for you. I hope to continue to grow and be half the woman that you are.

I am also extremely lucky to have you be my FAVORITE nurse and colleague at Advocate! Your passion for your patients is inspiring, not just to me but your coworkers, too. Watching you implement new ideas and lead projects in your role as a cardiac rehab nurse has rubbed off on me! I feel like the older I become, the more I realize how much I am like you. You are my biggest cheerleader, and I wouldn’t have gone into health care myself, as a Child Life Specialist at Advocate Children’s Hospital, without your support. I knew I wanted to go into healthcare in some capacity, after my cyst surgery when I was 16 and you took care of me. You prepared me on what to expect and were there by my side the entire time at the hospital, even when I was given medicine for the pain and kept you up all night not making much sense. You advocated significantly for my pain management. Then when I was able to go home, you kept me on a schedule, made sure I was walking around and going to the gym with you to assist in ‘rehabilitating’ me. You were made to be a nurse and take care of people. You also inspired me to build a career in helping others and seeing the light in the darkest of times. I feel as though we are very similar in the care that we give to our patients and families, even though we work in different fields.

This has been a very interesting time for us both to work in health care. I am so proud of the work you are doing in Employee Health, where you are taking care of and screening our team members at  Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital! Of course, I am nervous for you every day you are at work, although it is inspiring to see you rise to this new challenge, where you had to learn a completely new role with many different processes in a few days. Even though you are not taking care of patients, you are still providing such passionate care to those around you! They are incredibly lucky to have you.

I hope that I can give you a hug soon, and we won’t have to have 10 feet apart outside lawn chair parties for much longer! No matter how old I get, I am always going to need my mom. Thank you for being the best mother and role model I can ask for and for guiding me through life – with all of the love and laughs!

I love you!

XOXO Steph