StoryCorps at SHC: Catherine Terrell & Diane Martinez

Catherine Terrell (CT): I always wanted to be a nurse, and I always knew I would be a nurse, but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get there because I grew up in a family where college was never discussed in my home. The expectation of me was that I was going to make a good wife, and so I got married and had two kids in my early 20s, and stayed home with them and did what I was expected to do, but always wanted to be a nurse.

My mom finished law school in her 40s and my aunt finished medical school, and I was kind of looking around going, "It is possible." So I started taking classes one at a time at our local community college in Sonora and got into nursing school once my kids were in school all day.

Diane Martinez (DM): And then what got you towards cancer nursing?

CT: So when I was in nursing school, my third semester, I picked up a patient, she was 42, and she had metastatic colon cancer, and so there really wasn't a lot in the care plan because she was towards the end of her life. And so I wasn't sure if I was really going to learn very much clinically. And so I introduced myself to her, and we talked a lot kind of about life and her kids and her diagnosis. And the main thing that she struggled with was she knew that she wouldn't be there for her boys when they graduated from college and got married. And she just had so much that she wanted to share with them, but she knew she wasn't ever going to get to. So I left my day thinking there's not really anything I can do to fix this. I mean, I can't make her cancer go away, so I felt a little bit helpless.

And then as the late afternoon went on, my focus kind of shifted a little bit as to what can I do instead of what I can't do. And so I went and got a nice journal and a nice pen, and I gave it to her and told her that I knew she was right, that she wouldn't be there for her kids, but that she's here now, and she has all of these thoughts and feelings and sentiments that she wants to make sure her kids have on those days, and that you could write them down here, and I could help you if you need my help.

She passed away a couple weeks later, and my nursing instructor saved the obituary for me and gave it to me. I still have it. So I just knew at that point that oncology was for sure where I wanted to be.

DM: That's so awesome, Cat.

CT: Thank you. Why did you become an oncology nurse?

DM: It's really important for me to connect with people. I went through nursing school, and I thought that I wanted to be a pediatric nurse because I kind of really liked that orientation to the pediatric unit. And then there was one child on that unit that had cancer, and I just thought a lot of the scientific piece really was intriguing, but I'm kind of an emotional human being, which I think you can tell. And so I just wanted to get to know the family and the emotional piece and that tie. And so I thought, "Oh, I wanted to be a pediatric cancer nurse."

CT: How has it changed you as a person?

DM: Living in the moment, I think, is the one thing that I've learned. Just appreciate what you have.

CT: Yeah, I agree. We have so many blessings in our life. We both do.

DM: Yeah.

CT: It does, it makes you realize that we should be thankful for what we have.

DM: Yeah. You and I are cut from the same cloth in a way. We both have the same types of issues that make us very unique and strong women.

CT: For me, your friendship is one of those things that it doesn't matter if a month or two goes and we don't talk every day, that when we see each other, it's right back to where we left off, which is amazing. And I treasure that.

DM: I do too.

Produced by Stanford Health Care with interviews recorded in collaboration with StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity's stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world www.storycorps.org

Sound Editor: Emily Hsiao

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