CHRIS (LARGE) HAWKINS: Nurse Extraordinaire

 

First Contact

In my first phone conversation with Chris, she talked nonstop for nearly half an hour about her wonderful experiences in nursing, and  we made arrangements for me to visit her home in Barberton and hear more.

"Wow," I said to my husband when I got off the phone, "her voice is loud and clear and lovely. Surely good things have happened for her." Indeed they have, and Chris herself made most of them happen with her hard work, intelligence, courage, and that sweet smile that everyone remembers today, though it must have been a bittersweet smile somtimes.

Paul and Chris Large Hawkins
 

I arrived at her Victorian home with its purple front door, a tribute to the Barberton Magics. . The house originally belonged to the grandmother of her husband, Paul Hawkins, who was born and raised in town. The couple had a big home in Cuyahoga Falls which they sold recently to take over this family heirloom with its green tile fireplace and tiger wood pocket doors, the purple bedroom (another tribute to the Barberton Magics) where Chris injured her back in a fall while trying to finish painting its ceilings, and the white, airy curtains in several places in the house. The couple have been here a short time, but it is definitely homey, although they only spend their summers here every year, until September, when they head back to their condo in Jupiter, Florida. 

But if you know me, you know I am not so much into decorating as getting the story, and I knew Chris would have a great one. You will recall that in school, she barely spoke. Somewhere along the way, she earned a very powerful voice.

The Nurse




Chris, the Nurse
 

She began our conversation with her nursing career. "Why nursing?" I asked. She replied that she had wanted to be a nurse as long as she could remember, read all the Cherry Ames novels (as did I, without my ever consider nursing.) She had seen a lot of nurses from the time she was hospitalized at three months old, 12 months old and then again at 18 months old, and many times thereafter-- but she turned from the question of why to how..


She took a year off after we graduated in 1968, and then in 1969, she received a Morrow scholarship to Aultman's nursing program, which covered tuition, room, board, books-- anything she would need to get her RN. To be awarded this scholarship was quite a coup, even for someone who had graduated with a relatively high grade point average. ("I always got 'A's' on tests, and 'A's'  and 'B's'  in my classes" she noted, but would rather take an 'F' for any oral reports or class participation instead of talking in front of others.") 

Chris graduated with honors in 1973 with her RN and became Staff Nurse in Orthopedic/ Medical Surgery Nursing at Aultman. But by 1976, she was married and had a son. "The night shift with a small baby nearly killed me," she said, as did the very demanding weekly work schedule rotations, which she got no input into.

Chris with reams of documentation

So she was glad to get a job at Ravenna's Robinson Memorial Hospital (now a part of University Hospitals) that had straight shifts. She remained there for 38 years and became a dynamic force on the staff.

She went on to achieve her Bachelor’s degree and a Master of Science in Nursing Degree with a specialty in Nursing Administration. Her resume lists more than seven leadership positions at Robinson from Surgery and Critical Care Nursing, to Managing Telemetry and Medical Units to serving as Director of Medical Surgical Nursing, Director, Special Projects, Director of the Health Education Center, Magnet Program Director, Director of Nursing Practice, and Adjunct Faculty for nursing students, to name a few.

Chris fulfilled many other leadership roles and responsibilities in her position within the Nursing Administration Department during the last 13 years of her career at Robinson, culminating in her proudest accomplishment as Director, Nursing Practice, and the Magnet Program Director, guiding the hospital to achieve Magnet designation "the gold standard of nursing and hospital excellence," in 2006, before many of the larger hospitals had achieved the designation. That job took massive documentation, as you can see in the photo on the left of her sitting beside the stacks and stacks of paperwork she produced for the final award. The hospital also achieved redesignation as a Magnet Hospital for the second time in 2011 under Chris’ direction and leadership. 

She also loved staff celebrations, especially Halloween, which she and the staff always dressed for to cheer up the patients. Chris dressed up as Raggedy Ann, as a flapper, as The Cat in the Hat. This is woman who loves parties, celebrating, dressing up. She "retired" in 2006, after 30 years of service, only for Robinson Memorial to beg her to come back, which she did until 2014, when she finally, finally walked away into her real retirement. And what a life she has in retirement. But first, we needed to backtrack to Perry School days.

The School Girl

Chris finally brought up the topic I had not wanted to broach, the early difficult years that I vaguely recalled. She had been born with a cleft palate-- no palate, no uvula-- so her speech was impaired. Starting in first grade, during "play time," Chris was sent off for "Speech Therapy," which seemed particularly cruel to her, missing play time and having to sit through hours of mouth and throat torture. 

And before that, at age three months, she was hospitalized for several weeks for an operation that stitched her tongue to the side of her cheek to prevent her from choking on it until her anatomical structures grew larger enough to have multiple corrective reconstruction surgeries. Back then, hospitals did not believe that parents should visit, so she was totally cut off from her mom and dad. She has been told that tubes were put on her outstretched arms, a position she was forced to lie in all day and night. Although she cannot remember this period, she can imagine the kind of trauma that was for such a very small child.

Many of us remember that her speech was different in grade school, but it didn't seem a huge deal to us. Classmates that I asked about it this week either didn't even know or recall and the rest thought it didn't present problems in their understanding Chris.  I

The Famous Whipple Girl Scout Troop
(Thanks to Peggy Nelson for this photo)

didn't go to Whipple then, but Chris went to my church at the time when were little, and my mom's best friend was Chris's Aunt Ann, whose family also went to our church. Chris was active in the legendary Jo McDowell Girl Scout Troop in those days. Peggy Nelson, who did go to Whipple and was in Chris's Girl Scout Troop says, " I remember her positive attitude and smile and am pretty sure that made a difference." But I remember the bullies back then too, and I asked Chris about them. She didn't want to even go there but assured me, she took some terrible torment from some particularly cruel students. 

By high school, she had learned to remain nearly silent. As a result, many classmates were not even aware of her speech difference. When I told Dave Motts about this story, he said, "What? Chris? I don't remember that at all. I just remember her great smile." Over and over again, that's what everyone remembers: that smile. 

Class photo 1968

She did tell me about her worst experience at Perry, and it was not with a classmate but a teacher who monitored a Study Hall Chris was assigned to.  Approaching the teacher's desk to ask for the Lavatory Pass, Chris looked down at the seating chart and saw beneath her name, "Defective case." She walked out of the class and never went back, marched into a study hall, where she sat out that period for the rest of the year. No one came to get her; no one asked.


If that wasn't hurtful enough, she told me that she could not bear to give oral reports or speak up in class, and so oral reports and class participation, when graded, probably impacted her GPA. (Author's note:  Wherever I have taught since 1972, alternative assignments have been offered to students with special needs, and I am shocked to think that no teacher at the time ever offered Chris an alternative.) She notes that arriving in nursing school, she had a professor with a cleft palate, and, as with many of us, having a role model was enlightening and lightening. She was reborn into learning.

In addition to the difficulties at school, Chris was overburdened at home. As the only girl in the family, she was expected to do the mothering for her five younger brothers, as well as all the housecleaning and cooking. By junior high, she was forced to give up the wonderful Girl Scout troop to go straight home from school to help out at home with preparing family dinners and oversee the younger kids’ homework.When I asked if she had any friends she wanted to remember from those days, she recalled  her neighbor and best friend Meg Gorgon and also Peggy Forrest, who lived nearby, and later, in high school and Betsy Moretta, whom I interviewed and who remembers Chris with fondness. 

The Difference

Not until she was 30 did Chris actually get the operation that transformed her cleft palate and immensely improved her speech. A new doctor from Beirut, Lebanon at the hospital said he could "fix" it and help her to talk better. Her first husband and her first doctor were totally opposed, predicting dire consequences. Chris, with great determination, went on with it, ignoring the first doctor and divorcing the husband. The operation has given her a voice that is crystal clear.  And that smile? As sweet as ever, but wider and even more confident. 

Life Today: Playing, Partying, Painting and Decorating

When I asked Chris what the best part of her life is now, what she wants her classmates to know about her, she said: "Three things:  my husband, Paul, my son, and my life in Florida."

Today, her life is filled with her friends in Jupiter, Florida, where she and her husband spend about seven months out of the year, and her friends in Ohio where she spends the other five months. She is busy with yoga, water aerobics, card clubs, book club, and crafts (painting and stenciling). Oh, and partying. She brings up the topic of partying so often she sounds like my college freshmen, and she brings out the photos to prove it: pictures Chris, Paul and their friends at parties that go on and on down there in paradise.

Her son and his wife, who are both a postal workers, got a transfer to Florida so they could be near to Chris, which really thrilled her. She worked hard to raise him, most of the time on her own, while working full time in a demanding job, and having him nearby in her golden years is her glory.
 
And then there is Paul, to whom she has been married now for 32 years, clearly the love of her life. He was at the house while I was there, and it is clear to see how very dear Chris is to him, as he is to her. An accountant who is now retired too, Paul has also been a lifelong musician, a trombonist, going back to his days in the Barberton marching band up to his current gig in the Palm Beach Gardens Concert Band. Chris is there at every concernt, along with more than 40 of their friend from Jupiter. .

Chris hasn't been to a reunion before because the class lost track of her. For our 50th reunion, determined to track down anyone we could, Dave Motts, Marsha Brown Rennecker, and I have been like bloodhounds. We haven't located everyone, but we have gone to great ends to find as many as we could. Dave found one of Chris's brothers on the golf course and asked him for her contact information. We are thrilled she and Paul are coming. Please welcome her back. 

FINAL NOTE: I was so inspired by Chris's tales of nursing that I decided to look up all our classmates who went into nursing, and a brief account of their careers is coming up next week! Stay tuned!