Caring, Compassion and Competence. That’s what nursing is about.
Marie Fletcher embodied those qualities during her long career as a nurse anesthetist. “I had five minutes to build a rapport with someone whose life was going to be in my hands. I had to know what I was doing and I had to show them that I knew,” she says.
She also represented her profession as president of The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists’ Nebraska chapter. She was involved with crafting important legislation and regulations that lowered costs for patients, improved health outcomes and increased the standing and respect for her profession.
“I do know that I have a talent for seeing what needs to be done and then getting people together and doing it,” Marie says.
We’re lucky that Marie decided to get things done for us! And to share her talent with us for over 25 years.
In 1994, she and her husband Dave had just moved to Petaluma. They were both working as Nurse Anesthetists and they were parishioners at St. Vincent de Paul Church. They went to a ministry fair one Sunday after mass and learned about our revolving shelter program. The program has since been replaced by other, less transitory options for families, but, while Marie was involved, many local congregations would host families for two weeks, and they’d do it twice a year. Marie and Dave were busy with work, but they decided they could help with this program. Before long, they were organizing everything for the St. Vincent’s temporary shelter: transportation, meals, homework sessions, cleaning, crafts, supervision, safety.
Later, when we began offering weeks-long classes, Marie and Dave enlisted co-workers to help them cook meals and deliver them to our classrooms in churches and schools throughout Petaluma. Marie lost Dave in 2006, and she retired, but she kept making meals and delivering them. Not only that, she started volunteering in the classroom as a mentor, helping students absorb the curriculum and complete their assignments.
She recruited a team of mentors and cooks that stuck with the class until we put it on hiatus.
Now, Marie is part of two teams at Mary’s Table, sorting donated food and cooking wonderful meals.
She stays involved because she sees how her work helps. She loves running into Gwen, a woman whom she helped with a job application twenty-some years ago. Gwen’s at the same job she found back then, and her kids are grown up and healthy. “If you can help one person, it makes it worthwhile,” Marie says.
She gets to know our clients, especially the ones who help on the serving line with her. “I never turn any of them down for help.” Marie says. “It’s nice because there are slow times when you chat a little bit.” She’ll learn about people’s families and plans, and she’ll encourage them to persevere. She may share a story of her own, about one of her 15 grandchildren.
Marie is taken aback when you ask her why she gives so much.
“I’ve never really thought about why I do what I do or what I am,” she says. “I want to use my talents and my treasure and my time for the common good.”
“I feel sorry for the small guy, the one who’s getting tromped on. I want to do something for that person.”
Her advice to prospective volunteers? “Come and try it. Someone will help you get through it and if you enjoy it, come back. If it’s not for you, that’s fine, at least you tried.”
Thank you, Marie!
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