“Hi Nana!”

“The first thing that came to mind…is how loved ones have a way of letting us know that they're still there, they never left to begin with.  What an awesome gift”  ~Nathan Kofler (my little brother), 1/31/2012

The craziest thing happened while I was in Copenhagen.

My mom sent me an email link with a note from my Uncle Ted. It said “read this right away and let me know what you think”.  The link was to an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette about a woman, Anne Gallagher, who was searching for a nurse named Maggie who worked in the Pediatrics ward at St. Vincent’s Hospital in the mid-1960s.  Ms. Gallagher, a writer, was doing research for her memoir.  When Anne was a 2-year old girl living in Green Bay she was badly burned in a house fire and the nurse, Maggie, took care of her for 3 months.  Maggie stroked her hair, read her stories and cried softly when she was in pain.  She writes about her connection with Maggie poignantly in ”Her name was Maggie and she was my nurse” from her blog. Finding Maggie was one of the final pieces of Anne’s story and the article in the Press Gazette made it happen.  Anne had a photo of the day she was discharged and standing to the right of her wheelchair, in her pressed white nursing uniform, is the nurse Anne’s been searching for.


Maggie is my grandmother.  My Nana.  In the swell of emotions I was feeling in the moments after reading the article and seeing the photo, I emailed her.  “You brought her back to life” I said.  I spent hours reading Anne’s blog- Anne on Fire- that chronicles her journey of discovery and I found a kindred spirit.
 
Anne will not have the pleasure of meeting her again on this Earth but she is laughing in Heaven at this destined encounter and is so wonderfully alive in our hearts that I feel like I could touch her.  She was German and I spent the day yesterday walking around Denmark; a country similar in so many ways, tasting the local foods and eating off of dishes that resembled her white and blue porcelain. I re-told this story to colleagues, clients and friends and am repeatedly filled with gratitude and amazing memories:  stockings stuffed full on Christmas mornings, the smell of her kitchen, her roses, black licorice candies, the Milwaukee Zoo, homemade birthday cakes, sleepovers on the “davenport”, her big glasses, beautifully intricate handmade Christmas ornaments and infectious laugh... she would have loved my husband and children.  That my boys call my own mom “Nana” is a source of pride for all of us.

Saying a simple ‘thank you’ to Ms. Gallagher doesn’t seem like enough. We will all follow her story and line up to read her book.  Her email response to me this morning summed it up for all of us:

“It never occurred to me that I would bring to life someone so loved. I spoke with Maggie’s son Ted and Aunt Shirley.  I told them that when I was burned, I was just a child of 2 (turned 3 in the hospital) and that one of the reasons I wanted to do this research was to understand if the images and memories in my head were real or if I had made them up.  It’s really beautiful to know that the memories are real.” ~Anne Gallagher, 2/2/2012

To my Nana, who touched our lives so profoundly, we miss you. We will see you again.  We will hear your laughter and listen to more stories of the children you loved and cared for, like little Anne on Fire.