Back then I smoked, so we took our smoke breaks together and often lunch and coffee breaks as well. When our grandson was in St Louis for lung transplants, she called frequently and arranged for extra days off for me the time Charles nearly died several weeks before surgery. She looked out for me.

We often bought each other gifts for no reason at all.
One day on smoke break, she told me that her chest hurt all night and it hurt to smoke. She had been sick with the flu and thought that it was something left over from it. She went to the dr and he put her in the hospital because she was spitting up blood. She underwent tons of tests. Her doctor came to our nurses' station and wanted to talk to all of us who worked with her. He said that he was on his way to see Theresa but wanted to talk to us first. He said she had lung cancer that had already spread too far for surgery. He said that she was too far gone for chemo but could take radiation. He said she would be lucky if she lived another 6 months.

He wanted us to know first before we went to visit her on our breaks. She did the radiation without any success. I arranged with personnel to help pay her house payments and utility bills. She took what sick leave and vacation leave she had left and it did not take long for those 8 weeks to run out.

All of us took her out to eat at Red Lobster one night. She said that was the best treat she ever had as she and her husband never had the money to eat at big restaurants. That was in November of that year. We gave her an early Christmas that December. I took her to all of these functions.

She came in the hospital the day after Christmas and died New Year's Eve. To loose her so fast hurt far too much. She only lived 4 months of the 6 that the doctor gave her. She has been gone 10 yrs. I still think of her often, of her caring and loving ways. Her husband died two yrs later, he never got over her death. He kept her ashes and refused to bury them.

The hospital held a memorial service for Theresa and there was not a dry eye in the chapel.

I still miss her deeply.