Sharing a mentor: What leadership is about

In 1974 I entered a space that would become a journey filled with people who touch the lives of others in very special ways. One exceptional person was a woman who greeted me on my first day of work with warm and caring eyes. Her name was Laurel. I was a novice graduate nurse, and she had been promoted recently to the director of patient care for the medical floor; so my first job as a nurse began with a supervisor who emulated this noble profession. Laurel Ione Suchy was born of Bohemian descent on a farm in Mandan, Morton County, North Dakota. Ever since Laurel could remember, her dream was to become a nurse. Growing up the eldest in a family of 4, Laurel always preferred to be outdoors tending to cattle, working the field, and shocking hay. From time to time, she helped create a dress or a blouse on the family Singer sewing machine. The North Dakota prairie and farming kindled a kind of hardiness, a sense of stability, and a deep connection with the earth.