They Said I Was Throwing My Career Away — Three Years Later They Were Begging

My supervisor called it a mistake.

Not unkindly — Patricia Chen was not an unkind woman. She sat across from me in her office on the fourth floor of Mercy General and she looked at my resignation letter and she looked at me and she said, with genuine concern in her voice, that she hoped I understood what I was giving up.

“You’re one of the best ICU nurses we have,” she said. “Seventeen years. You’ve built something here, Joanne. Once you step away from clinical nursing it is very hard to come back.”

“I know,” I said.

“Your mother — there are options. Home health aides. Memory care facilities. Good ones. We can help you find resources.”

“She doesn’t want a facility,” I said. “She wants to be home. And she wants me.”

Patricia looked at me for a long moment.

“Then at least take a leave of absence,” she said. “Don’t close the door entirely.”

I thanked her for seventeen years and I handed her my resignation.

I closed the door.