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| Heather |
At 64, Heather, who said she “listens to people all the time” and knows “too much about too many things," tells it like it is. She recalled that an older, experienced physician once advised her that “if you listen, you can figure it all out".
(Well, when she was young, she may have heard what her parents said, but she didn’t always listen.)
Heather’s parents emigrated from Yorkshire, England, to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where her father, a “genius” gifted mechanical engineer, designed cranes for Stelco Steel. He then moved the family to Stony Creek, Connecticut, near the Thimble Islands in Long Island Sound, where, as chief engineer, he worked on lifting equipment for ManSaver. He was then transferred to ACCO in York, Pennsylvania, on Princess Street.
He subsequently turned down a promotion to be chief engineer of the company. He would need to move the family to Salem, Illinois, but when he visited the plant, he quickly decided that he did not want to live in the Midwest. When his boss threatened to fire him for refusing the generous offer, he took the matter into his own hands (so to speak) and quit his job before that would happen. And in 1972, Harvey Bradley started his own business, Bradley Lifting Corp., on Sherman Street, before he moved everything to the current Elm Street location.
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| A custom below-the-hook lifting device (Credit: bradleylifting.com) |
Reflecting on her successful father, Heather remarked that “there were geniuses in the family” and that she, as the middle child, as the black sheep, felt that she could never live up to the high expectations for her. Her brother Colin and sister Lorraine set lofty examples in school, and what she heard was, for instance: “There’s Heather! How come she’s in the back of her science class by herself?” Her unspoken reply? “Because she hates it!”
Though she didn’t really like science, she truly despised math. She didn’t get it at all. Her father tried to teach her (“You’re going to learn this, Heather’), When he showed her something and asked whether she “got it,” she was at a complete loss–she “got nothing.” She said that when he bought her a big fancy calculator she “didn’t even know how it turn it on!” Her father’s approach to teaching was not the one for her. She needed things presented differently, and in line with her own nature, her way of learning.
By the way, her British mother (who did nursing while still in England) could also be tough on her kids. For example, her method of teaching her young children to swim was to simply toss them into Long Island Sound. (She apparently knew what she was doing, and later gave formal swimming lessons.)
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| Meigs Beach (Credit: Long Island Sound Partnership) |
What would she do instead? Being good mechanically and having worked in a garage at 17, Heather announced that she wanted to be a truck driver or a diesel mechanic. She was told that “girls don’t do that.”
Nursing? No. Family Business? Yes.
Her parents knew that their younger daughter was a very caring and generous person who always wanted to help people. So, at 19, Heather was urged to take a job as a helper at a small local nursing home, and she went along. She was quite disturbed, however, when she saw how some of the residents were being treated. And when one of them, a woman who had reportedly not spoken a word in, maybe, ten years, said, “It will be all right, honey,” Heather ran out of her room screaming, “I quit!” The job lasted four days.
(A brief aside: Heather likes to help animals as well as people. As the story goes, she once took care of an unvaccinated rabid hunting dog for two days, even though he was, she said, “foaming at the mouth.” Her parents never uttered a thing as “the dog was licking me and everything,” said Heather. She escaped near catastrophe and did not need to be treated for a possibly fatal rabies infection.)
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| Woodcut of a rabid dog (Credit: Middle Temple Library) |
She said that she put her “heart and soul into the place.” She was “on-call 24/7” and was happy as she provided for and raised her two daughters by herself (her husband, the girls’ father, didn’t want the responsibility of children, and he left when they were two and four).
The very successful family business was bought by Xtek in 2008 with the promise that the current staff would remain. But that standard gratuitous assurance was not kept, and Heather was fired. This had been her life for 29 years. She was “furious.”
Back to Nursing
By then, both of her daughters were in college, and Heather was suddenly adrift. She gave herself two weeks to pout and two weeks to be angry. And as she was lying on the sofa,” looking at “shadows on the wall,” thinking about what to do to “make this a better place,” and as she “always loved people,” she decided to try nursing again.
She took a two-week course to be a certified Home Health Aide and scored 100% on the final exam. She quickly moved on and enrolled in a program to qualify as a CNA. Again, she scored 100% on the tests. While she was working as a CNA in one of the local nursing homes, one of her colleagues was fired: it was claimed that she was “too nice” and “spent too much time with people.” Heather was appalled by this harsh criticism of compassionate caring and by what she witnessed day to day at the nursing facility. She did not hesitate to share her thoughts about the place with anyone who asked for her opinion.
She needed to move away from nursing homes and, at 48, she finally felt confident enough in her abilities to enroll in an LPN program. It had been 30 years since she had done schoolwork. When she took the pre-admission math and science tests, she didn’t pass. But she was not going to give up. So she got a tutor, used the math.com website, and did everything she could “just to be better.” The result? She got a 100% score when she took the tests a second time. So she enrolled and easily completed the 11-month program.
By then, it was 2011, and time to start her nursing career, when she had an odd recurring dream. She saw herself measuring and testing urine samples. Some dreams, it seems, are fulfilled, and Heather got a job as a procedure nurse in Urology at Memorial Osteopathic Hospital. She worked with Dr. Mohammad Bhatti (whom she respected as an innovative surgeon) and enjoyed it there, but she had to move on when he left and went to New Jersey to practice. She needed to find another job because she had, in her words, “these children!”
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| The former Memorial Osteopathic Hospital (Credit: Jim Hayman Studio) |
Speaking of kids, though Heather had been told by her doctor that she could never get pregnant, she did conceive, and, as we have seen, had two daughters. As she raised them essentially by herself, she let them know that, unlike her example, they were definitely going to go to college. She tried to prepare them for this by exposing them to a large “volume of words” (starting when they were in the womb) that they could rely on to navigate the world. And she taught them about the importance of diversity and to never judge people by their appearance.
But things were not easy. Both Kate and Heidi have had serious health problems, and their fierce mother went to great lengths to make sure they received the expert medical care they needed.
Even if it meant that she would, for example, have to drive to specialty medical centers in Hershey or Philadelphia each morning for a while before starting her own work in York. Even if it meant that she had to put herself at risk to rescue them from harmful situations with their dangerous “friends.” Even if she had to quickly fabricate a threatening scenario with a one-sided phone call in the iconic manner of legendary Bob Newhart, to force the hospital to release her daughter.
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| Bob Newhart taking a call (Credit: CBS) |
Heather admitted to me that she was (often) frustrated and (sometimes) angry, and felt pushed to the limit as a parent. She realized she was “trying to be too many people.” But Heather doesn’t give up easily, and she remains close with her girls. She feels that both of her daughters are “surreal.” And she is especially proud of Kate and Heidi for triumphing over their early challenges. Both women have achieved much: Kate became a Naturopathic doctor, and Heidi "did an apprenticeship in development and structure."
Resuming the Nursing Story
After that detour, we can return to Heather’s nursing. With Dr. Perry, she kept things “rolling along” in the office, and she felt that she was in a good place. But after a few years, her winding path led her to the Elmwood Medical Center with Dr. Gregory Otte and Dr. Carl (Sam) Colombo. Alongside them, she learned a good deal about the broad field of general internal medicine. She learned how to help care for patients with infectious diseases from another physician in the practice, Dr. William Wright. After a while, the office was moved to Whiteford Road.
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| Dr. Colombo |
So, after years of working with younger patients, she expanded her interests to the care of the elderly, and she developed some expertise with these patients. But when she felt that the compensation for her work didn't match her new advanced skills, her path was altered again. When they offered her part-time hours, she turned it down to focus on her "blossoming marriage."
At this point, Greg, her new husband, suggested she take some time off. She agreed, and the original “five or six months” turned into ten, and she “loved it.”
Greg West and Marriage
Heather met Greg West through a mutual friend. His wife died after a long and challenging illness. Six months later, when Greg's and Heather's paths crossed, he had, in his grief, gained a lot of weight. Heather offered to help him as a personal trainer. Over the next few months, he lost seventy pounds by following her careful and strict exercise and nutrition plan. And he did well until he suffered an ACL injury that forced him to become sedentary, after which he regained weight. ("When something happens to you, the worst thing you can do is to sit," noted Heather.)
Greg and Heather were married by a Justice of the Peace on “7/24/24 at four o’clock” in the afternoon in Stony Creek, Connecticut. After the ceremony, without changing out of her wedding dress, they went for lobster at a local beer joint where several people happily bought the newlyweds drinks. That night, they stayed at the classy Thimble Island Bed and Breakfast. They stayed in the room just vacated by the brilliant and still busy 89-year-old Julie Andrews (who was there for a puppet show).
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| Thimble Island Bed & Breakfast (Credit: TIBB) |
She teaches several different types of classes (including water aerobics and intense cycling) about ten hours a week and, as noted, is a personal trainer. But she is particularly fulfilled when she is helping, as she says, “physically-challenged people,” including those with Parkinson’s and related conditions, in the innovative and well-received Momentum program. It is said that the potential benefits of regular moderate or vigorous exercise for those with Parkinson's may include delayed onset of the disease, slowing of progression, and lessening of symptoms.
She said that she ''did a lot of research to find out how best to help people with Parkinson’s live better and more safely. And in her class, they dance, they lift weights, they do circuits, they play Frisbee, they do balance exercises, and they just have a good time. She teaches them how to fall without getting hurt and how to get off the floor when they do fall. The group element adds the important benefit of regular, familiar social interaction for individuals who may become isolated due to their disease.
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| The York Jewish Community Center (Credit: York JCC) |
Heather feels she is a nurse “24/7” and when things happen at “The J” and quick action is needed, Heather has been there. She does not hesitate to respond if someone collapses due to low blood pressure, has an apparent acute heart event, or has seizures. She will make sure they are safe, and she will be certain that an ambulance is on the way (though she has found, to her dismay, that it might take 20 minutes for them to arrive). As she likes to say, “Your health is your wealth.”
But Heather will spring into action in other circumstances as well. For example, when she heard that a patron’s pocketbook was stolen, she ran after the cowardly thief and forcefully confronted him–she “jumped” him. “Here, take the handbag, lady!” was his frantic response before he ran off. The bag was returned to the victim of the crime, retired and beloved JCC Early Education teacher Fifi Spangler. You see, Heather will do whatever has to be done to help someone in need.
At this point in life, as she nears the traditional retirement age of 65, Heather’s not sure if she’s finished with nursing, a career that, for her, as someone who enjoys a wide variety of experiences, has been personally rewarding owing to its vast array of different practice opportunities.
Looking back, Heather realized that everything her parents told her turned out to be true.
Suggested Readings:
1. Langeskov-Christensen M, Franzen E. Grondahl Hvid L, et al. "Exercise as medicine in Parkinson's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 2024;96:1077-1088. (Regular exercise--of any sort--may delay the onset of the disease, may slow the progression, and may alleviate symptoms.)
2. Qiu Y, Fernandez-Garcia B, et al. "Exercise sustains the hallmarks of health." J Sport Health Sci. 2023 Jan;12(1):8-35. (The authors of this comprehensive review conclude that "exercise induces adaptive responses throughout the entire body" and that the effects are profoundly health-promoting. They state that "the most ancient and potent 'medicine' known to mankind that promotes healthspan is the engagement in organized, repeated and purposeful physical activities, or exercise training.")
3. Tobell, Dominique A. "The transformation of American nursing." Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. XXXIX, No. 3, Spring 2023. (As opposed to procedure-based training, the new model of undergraduate nursing education, starting in the 1950s, "emphasized science-based learning, clinical thinking, and patient-centered practice." And a prime goal was to treat patients as "total persons." )
By Anita Cherry 3/20/26
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