Saluting Nurses

Over the past week, I was fortunate to interview a number of fascinating nurses at Trustmark. Same for Trustmark associates who have family or close friends who are nurses.

It was particularly poignant working on content for National Nurses Day because of the bravery and sacrifice of nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic. I was inspired by the colleagues I spoke with, and I wanted to share some of their experiences and thoughts on the nursing profession.

“Never Been More Proud”

In January, 2010, Margaret McKavitt, a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve, was stationed aboard the USNS Comfort Hospital Ship in Haiti in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. For two straight weeks, McKavitt, a Registered Nurse (RN) who is now part of the Trustmark Health Benefits’ Healthcare Management team, worked in the post-anesthesia unit while the operating room ran 24/7.

A decade later, that same ship was docked in New York City as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“The hardest I worked as a nurse was in Haiti, and I don’t think it even comes close to comparing to what the front-line nurses are seeing and dealing with today,” McKavitt said.

Growing up, McKavitt admired her father, a retired Air Force reservist. She set her sights on following in her father’s wings and joining the Air Force. Until, that is, a handsome Midshipman caught her eye. McKavitt and her husband, Tom (the handsome Midshipman), have been married for 36 years; for 27 of them, she served in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Tom was a Naval Aviator; he served 24 years and retired as a Commander.

Even though she became a grandma for the second time on Friday, there is still a part of her that wishes she was on duty.

“It’s been an unusual experience not to be on the front lines,” she said. “I’ve always been extremely proud of my profession, but never more so than right now.”

A Calling

Some nurses instinctively know what they want to be at a young age.

That was certainly the case for Suzann Chesek, an RN, and a Trustmark Director of Case Management. She grew up idolizing her great aunt, Dot, who was equal parts smart, spunk and compassion. Whether it was people or animals, Chesek wanted to care for them. As a teenager, she started watching the show, China Beach, and was enamored with nurse Colleen McMurphy, the main character.

So much so that McMurphy was the subject of her college admission essay at the University of Pennsylvania.

“McMurphy was the strongest, smartest and coolest nurse,” Chesek said. “She really knew how to speak up for her patients. That was the type of nurse I wanted to be.”

After close to two decades as an ICU nurse and house administrator at a hospital, Chesek joined Trustmark.

 “I still want to care for people and appreciate the role and value we contribute in case management,” she said.

Still, Chesek is determined to do even more. She just applied for an as-needed nursing position on select weekends and evenings at her old hospital to provide assistance for staff during COVID-19.

All That And a Litter of Puppies

Amanda Killian, an Associate HR Business Partner at Trustmark, marvels at what her friend Rebecca packs into each day. Rebecca works 12-hour shifts taking care of ICU and COVID-19 patients. In addition, she is raising her 14-year-old and her almost one-year old.

In April, the family dog gave birth to a litter of French Bulldog puppies. And get this, they are currently raising and training … all ten puppies

Killian reports that Rebecca does it all with a genuine smile on her face.

 “She sets quite an example for her kids of hard work, dedication and passion,” Killian said.

Nurses Care

There is a saying in nursing circles that, “nurse is just another word to describe a person strong enough to tolerate everything and soft enough to understand everyone.”

Nurses care deeply for patients and make lasting impressions on them.

“People never forget when you help them in their darkest moments,” said Diane Good, an RN and Case Manager at Trustmark. “We work long hours, we hear the saddest of stories, we cry and we laugh. We have the best job at Trustmark because we know we do our best to help patients and let them know that they have someone that cares about them. People’s lives depend on nurses. They depend on nurses to be at their best every day. That’s what nurses do everywhere – they care.”

Don Shula – Looking Back at A Legend

In 1985, the Chicago Bears were attempting the second perfect season in NFL history. After 12 consecutive victories, they would play the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football.

My parents must have been out of town because I remember that I spent that night at my Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Al’s place. I had a ritual in those days when I watched sports. I had to have a ball with me, and when I would get excited I would clap both hands on the outside of the ball.

Grandpa Al was worried I would wake the neighbors, and it was probably a well-placed concern.

I rooted so hard for Dan Marino as he picked apart the hated Bears and led the Dolphins to a 38-24 victory. Don Shula, who coached the Dolphins to the only undefeated season, was now the coach who denied the Bears a chance at theirs.

Nearly 15 years later, my first job out of college finds me working at the now defunct Boca Raton News in South Florida. Shula had retired after the 1995 season and Marino’s retirement was near. It is hard to overstate how big Marino and the Dolphins were in South Florida. The Miami Heat didn’t exist until 1988 and the Florida Marlins’ first year was 1993. For so long, the Dolphins were the only game in town.

It was a thrill to cover several of Marino’s games in what turned out to be his final season. The day he announced his retirement, I had the opportunity to write one of our paper’s many stories about No. 13.

I was always fascinated that Marino lasted until the 27th pick of the 1983 NFL draft.

I decided to begin the story at that moment as Shula knew he was lucky Marino was still available. I wrote, “Even Don Shula’s famed, firm jaw was incredulous.” Unfortunately, you’ll have to take my word for it, as there is no online version of the story to be found. I’m still proud of that sentence, though, and pleased to have played a role in our Dolphins coverage that day.

On Monday, Shula, the NFL’s all-time winningest coach died at the age of 90. I always admired Shula; for his success, of course, but also the way he approached the game. Shula once said,"some clubs want to win so much they’ll do anything to get it. Our approach has been just the opposite. We’ve tried to do things the right away. And the right way is (abiding by) the rules and regulations. … I may not like all of them but once they are (official) we play by them.”

I also loved his quip at his first press conference when a reporter asked if he had a three-year or five-year plan. “My plan is to go to work,” he replied.

David Hyde, the long-time sports columnist for the Sun-Sentinel, shared this anecdote about Shula in Monday’s column. Hyde wrote that the way Shula approached his daily jog was the way he approached everything: “What stood out was the methodical preciseness of his path around the field. He ran for 30 minutes. Never less. He always made geometric, 90-degree turns as the field’s line demanded. He never cut corners. Never.”

Shula’s career record was 328-156-6. To put that in perspective, Bill Belichick, who does not have the same respect for the rules as Shula, has 273 victories. He’ll need at least five good seasons to challenge Shula’s mark.

Shula had such a presence that even today it’s hard to imagine him anywhere but the football field.

Standing on the sidelines – in the South Florida sun – with a jaw as firm as his principles.

Al Kaline, Jeff Daniels and What it Means to be 9

My best friend Tim told me he was reading a book about alkaline.

I was stunned.

We only checked out books from the school library by choice if they were about sports. It was an unspoken agreement. Why, all of a sudden, was he showing interest in the pH of water? Why did he care that akali can be defined as a base that dissolves in water? Where were his priorities? We had sports books to read!

Actually, we were in grammar school, so that was not my response. 

After asking Tim to repeat the name several times, it turned out the book was about the great ballplayer Al Kaline. And we weren't the only ones with Kaline confusion. 

BaseballReference.com's “Cool Names” list features Al Kaline because “some fans have noticed that his names when pushed together make the word alkaline.”

While I remembered the funny conversation about alkaline and knew about his Hall of Fame career, I rarely thought about the man they called Mr. Tiger.

Until, that is, I listened to a tribute song for Kaline, who died in April, by the actor Jeff Daniels.

Daniels was born in Michigan, a Tigers fan, and one of the defining moments of his childhood was heading to old Tiger Stadium when he was 9-year-old for “Bat Day.” He returned with a bat signed by his hero, Al Kaline.

The beauty of Daniels' song is that a few seconds in you are 9-years-old again.

You’re remembering how at that age the first time you saw a big-league-park each season the grass looked so green it was as if your eyes were playing tricks.

When you’re age 9, big leaguers seem old. They tower over you like superheroes, and no one is more larger than life than your favorite player. For me, and a generation of kids growing up in Milwaukee, it was Robin Yount or Paul Molitor. Today, it’s Christian Yelich.

In Detroit, if you were Daniels’ age, your hero was Al Kaline. Daniels sings:

Early summer 1964, 9-years-old and ready for more

Just like Christmas comes once a year, Tiger Bat Day was finally here

Backyard baseball I was destined for stardom. 

When I was him I hit it over Mom’s Garden

He was the hero I pretended to be. I was him, he was me.

But you can’t stay a kid forever, just like your hero can't stay young. You see Paul Molitor's starting to look like an older man, his hair turning gray. Paul Molitor can’t age can he? And if he can, what does that mean for you?

One day you realize you're older than some of the players you're watching. Pretty soon, their birthdate is the same year you celebrated your 21^st birthday. You find yourself rooting like crazy for aging veterans to hold on so you’re not older than every single player.

He was just a ballplayer and I was just a kid.

All I ever wanted was everything he did.

Just like him I reached for more than I could ever be.

My childhood hero died today along with a little bit of me.

Then one day your son begins to develop an interest in baseball. Pretty soon, his arm is strong enough that you're buying a glove to play catch with him. Each time you throw the ball, you recapture a little bit of that 9-year-old.

The game doesn't mean as much as it did to you when you were 9. You realize that's as it should be, but that it's also a big part of who you still are and always will be.

            Now decades later with that bat in my hand. 

            Some things take a lifetime to understand.

With that, Jeff Daniels walks us off.

I Vote for Jeff – Confidently

My first real conversation with Jeff Fleischer came one evening when we walked back from the Indiana Daily Student to the Brownstone Terrace Apartments.

I’m not sure if it was my sophomore or junior year. Jeff would know. He remembers everything.

At the time, R.E.M’s “Man on the Moon” was in constant rotation on the radio. I loved the song but  was perplexed by the lyrics. Jeff told me the song is a tribute to the comedian Andy Kaufman, who at the time I had never heard of. Jeff had and that led to more stories.

This became a pattern. If I didn’t know or understand something, I would ask Jeff. Jeff was insanely versatile whether the topic was sports, music, history or politics.

You should have heard our conversations about art and philosophy. They were legendary.

Actually, I never asked about philosophy or art but if I had I am sure his insights would have been stellar.

Since college, Jeff and I have attended sporting events, concerts and closed late-night diners after filing stories for the Daily Herald.

Jeff is the type of guy who would do anything for a friend, and also the type of guy who should be on Jeopardy!

Wait, he was, and I even drove him to the airport for that trip. Jeff enjoyed the experience but said timing the button is harder than it looks. The internet has let us down because I can’t find a link to that episode.

Since appearing on Jeopardy, Jeff hasn’t slowed down. He is a prolific freelance writer and in 2016 I was elated when his book, Votes of Confidence: A Young Person’s Guide to American Elections, was published to critical acclaim.

Publishers Weekly wrote, “Fleischer’s well-contextualized, nonpartisan approach results in a valuable resource for readers looking to understand and become involved in a complicated system while avoiding spin.”

The second edition of Votes of Confidence was published earlier this year and the reviews were just as impressive.

ALA Booklist wrote,” Fleischer clearly and understandably explains how the American government came to be and how it’s supposed to work. … Fleischer avoids making the topic dry or boring by using conversational language and includes surprising facts that make this a very readable, engaging, and entertaining history of American elections and politics for young people. Highly recommended.”

This was my favorite, courtesy of the School Library Journal. “Written in a conversational tone, the text reads like course notes from a beloved teacher. Fleischer presents a potentially didactic subject matter in a digestible and organized manner. … This title is a history lesson, civics compendium, and call to action combined in one engaging volume.”

Ahead of middle school and high school graduation season, consider Votes of Confidence for the graduate in your life or any young person for that matter. Books can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound or wherever you buy books.

Jeff, thanks for the friendship, the stories and the knowledge over the years.

Let’s let Michael Stipe and guest singer/guitarist Bruce Springsteen play us off with my all-time favorite version of “Man on the Moon.”

The First Saturday in May

Some words in sports are like magic. Magic for the anticipation, possibilities and excitement they dangle before us.

Opening Day. Game 7. Amen Corner on Sunday at Augusta.

For many, me included, the words the first Saturday in May are in that category. This is the day reserved for the Kentucky Derby, the Run for the Roses, the year’s most anticipated horse race. Of course, there is no Kentucky Derby today, although race officials maintain a race will likely happen at some point in 2020.

With no Derby to watch, I spent some time thinking about previous races. My favorite Derby memory is from 1995 and watching Thunder Gulch gallop to victory at 25 to 1.

I had just returned to Milwaukee after my freshman year at Indiana University. Less than 12 hours later, I was on my way to Arlington International Racecourse with Grandma Cookie and Grandpa Irving and their friends for the Kentucky Derby.

Grandma Cookie was a huge horse racing fan. Each Friday, Grandpa would go to one of the only newsstands in Milwaukee that had a racing form.

My analytical Grandma would then spend most of Friday night looking at the past results of races and handicapping who would run well on Saturday. I was always fascinated by racing forms, in part because I didn’t then, and don’t today, fully understand all the statistics in the agate type. With most things sports related, I am a quick study. Not for the racing form, though, and that added an element of wonder to how Grandma made sense of it all.

Come Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa “were off” to use horse racing lingo, from Milwaukee to Arlington. They had a reserved table, inside, in the air conditioning. I would usually join them at least once and sometimes twice a year. They spent the afternoon betting on the races in the company of their good friends. They never made large bets. The money kept things interesting but for Grandma it was just the way to help her keep score; she was in it for the intellectual challenge. I always loved it when their horse was winning and Grandpa would bellow, “stop the race.”

It was so much fun seeing Grandma in her element at the track. I recall that Grandpa would alternate between a few of his own bets and also the horses Grandma Cookie would pick. They had one friend, Grace, who took the other approach. She liked to bet based on the name of the horse, particularly if the horse was a long shot.

When the races were done, they headed home to Milwaukee. They stopped at a restaurant to break up the ride, often at the Brat Stop or the Apple Holler (where years later my brother and I took our families apple picking).

On that first Saturday in May with Grandma and Grandpa in 1995, I somehow found myself with a win ticket on Thunder Gulch. I bet Grace had that one as well.

It was a pretty incredible day.

But the same could be said for every Saturday I spent at the track with Grandma and Grandpa.

Sir Isaac Meet Bob

In 1665, Isaac Newton retreated to his family’s estate after classes at Cambridge were cancelled because of the bubonic plaque. In the year that followed, he wrote the papers that became the basis for early calculus, began theorizing about optics, and as Mental Floss put it, “was also the time when his theory of gravity germinated.”

Yep. Guess he earned that Sir in front of his name.

In April, I, too, have been productive during the COVID-19 Pandemic. I caught up on the second season of Succession, spent focused time coming to a ‘working conclusion’ that the Birthday Paradox is a hoax and even disciplined myself to type the word camaraderie correctly without relying on spell check.

But would Sir Isaac be proud? Am I pushing myself hard enough? What could I accomplish in May if I focused?

My first idea was to write about the relative strengths and weaknesses of Euclidian and non-Euclidian geometry. But I’m also a bit wary of writing over my audience (no offense).

Oh, who am I kidding? Just because I threw around some big (or medium-sized) words there, I’m still the guy who struggled with 'The Given.' Let a different blogger take this on.

OK, what else am I passionate about?

I’ve read there is a robust debate in contemporary physics about realism vs. constructivism and how that impacts the way people think about the understanding of quantum theory and its instructional process.

Hmm, tempting. But, frankly, not sure it’s worth my time. After an initial perusal, I find most of the arguments weak and ineffectual. 

Really want something with more intellectual rigor. No fun in punching below your weight, right?

The third option is taking the idea of three-dimensional chess to the next logical level. Since four is greater than three, is four-dimensional chess actually what people should strive for from a strategic standpoint? If so, what percent better would it be? Why isn’t there more research on this?

I know I’m on to something here, but it seems a touch outside my wheelhouse.

Then, it hit me. 

ESPN may have the copyright for “30 for 30,” but after a cursory check I didn't see a patent for 31 blogs in 31 days in May.

The next logical question is a fair one. You do realize you’ve only written 15 blogs in 18 months? 

True, but I was just getting loose. Time for a blogging streak.

Be sure to read each of the 31 posts carefully as there may be a quiz at the end, and it will count toward the final grade.

However, I can be bribed.

Address me as Sir Bobproof or the blogging-incarnation of DiMaggio and your grade will almost certainly feature the first letter of the alphabet. 

The Times We Live In

I worked late – as I always did in those days – on 9/10/2001. As sports editor of the now defunct Boca Raton News in Florida, I came into the office in the early afternoon and didn’t leave until printing presses were humming around midnight. High school football had just started and the Florida Atlantic University football team was one game into its inaugural season.

Woke up the next morning, turned on the TV and realized everything had changed. So suddenly, so jarringly. Was in awe (and still am) of first responders such as the New York Fire Department.

We’ve lived through plenty of history since, but the COVID-19 Pandemic – while very different than 9/11 – is the first that seems to carry some of the same weight and significance. There is no one specific date in this Pandemic that will resonate the way 9/11 did and does, but this period is one my son Liam will tell his grandchildren about.

I wore an NYFD hat after 9-11 and today I would gladly wear one for the essential workers. The doctors and nurses – of course – are heroes. So are others – delivery drivers, grocery store employees and the like – who help people buy and receive necessities and keep at least some semblance of the economy going.

Since my wife Xiaoli’s mom and sister live in China, we were more familiar with the virus than many. We knew how strict the social distancing was, and is, even in areas such as Shanghai which fortunately have not had a lot of cases. With that said, we never would have thought the virus would have impacted America the way it has. In New York City alone, there have been more than 11,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19.

Like so many of you, we are grateful for our health, trying to stay positive and determined to make the most of each day.

So far, Liam and I have had quite a run playing football. We were halfway to Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game streak before we took a day off.

Liam, 8, is at an age where, really for the last year or so, his vocabulary and expressions seem to expand each day.. Just yesterday, I asked him if he was ready for football and without missing a beat, he said, “I was born ready.”

While these are trying times for everyone, I liked Liam’s approach.

Let's give Liam the final word.