Moments in the lives of those who enter the doors of Mather Hospital–employees, physicians, volunteers, visitors, patients and others.

When someone asks me why I volunteer at Mather my answer is always the same, I like it here. I’ve been retired for eight years and I like to keep busy. I’m not a knitter, and I don’t crochet and I definitely don’t participate in athletics, so I tried to figure out what I could do to occupy my time. I took a chance and joined the Volunteer Department.

I’ve spent a lot of time at Mather over the years as my husband was a frequent flyer here. The hallways and the people became quite familiar to me. I lived in Coram at the time and Mather was my community hospital.

My husband has since passed away and I feel I see the hospital from a different perspective now. I stay here because I’m thriving as a human being. I’ve made great friends here and we share so many memories together. It has given me special benefits that I feel cannot be duplicated anywhere else. It’s increased my independence and it makes me feel like part of something bigger. I always learn something new every time I’m here. The most important thing I’ve learned is to appreciate people from all walks of life. The second most important thing I’ve learned is that older people have a lot to contribute.

I now live 45 minutes away from the hospital but that doesn’t stop me. I still come weekly, attend events and contribute as much as I can. I don’t even notice my long ride when I come here. I’m just happy I’ve arrived.

– Ann, Mather Auxiliary/Volunteer

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My uncle and my grandfather started a restaurant in 1959 in Syosset, Long Island called Christiano’s. It stayed in the family until 2000. It was a really popular restaurant. I have great memories of it from when I was growing up. It was a great place to bring families together and create lasting memories. Billy Joel ate there all the time. His song “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” is about Christiano’s. The photo on the back of “The Stranger” album was taken at the restaurant. In the photo Billy and his band are drinking red wine at one of the tables.

Billy Joel went to Hicksville High School, like I did, so my connection to him starts in the “neighborhood.” My dad, Vinnie, ran a place by the name of Fulton Street Pub in Farmingdale for many years. It was close to our house. Billy was there all the time by himself and with his band. I was a bar back at the pub and I remember working really hard but having fun.

Recently my father was at the Paramount in Huntington. Billy Joel was there and so was Christie Brinkley. They were talking – yes, they do get along. My father walked over to them and he said it was like no time had passed at all. They reminisced about the “old days.” My father still keeps in touch with everyone from his bar days and he has made life-long friends from there.

As you can imagine, my family has been to many of Billy’s shows. Many of Billy’s songs are based on experiences from where he grew up and the people he knew throughout his life. I can relate to so much of it because I grew up there also.
Even today it’s so great to reminisce through the lyrics of his music. It makes me remember my “good old days.”

-Frank, Environmental Services

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I’ve always enjoyed creating a sense of calmness and welcome in my home and this quality of mine shines in my work area for my team and for our patients. These patients have anxiety; they’re sick, and anxious about what the outcome will be. They are often claustrophobic. But when they come in here they’re reaction often is, “Gee, this really isn’t so bad.” It’s all about creating a calm atmosphere that’s a little less clinical at times. I’ve created waiting areas and exam rooms that are cozier with lighting, art, soft music, warm blankets, and a friendly staff. All this seems to set a sense of calm from when the time you walk into the door. We even have soft imagery on the ceiling, and any music for people to listen to during their MRI.

At this hospital you often have the time to get to know people you’re helping. We’ve all known places that have more of an assembly line-like feel and that doesn’t exist here. I pride myself on being a people person, somebody who recognizes a glance and likes to give back a smile, hold a hand or look you calmly in the eye.

-Dan, MRI

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I grew up right across the street from the hospital. My parents moved here in 1937. My mother met my father at St. Catherine’s Hospital in Brooklyn. He was studying to be a doctor and she was in the nursing program. They rented a place in Port Jefferson and then they bought the house across the street. I could see the ambulances pulling in from my bedroom. My father – Thomas Francis Robinson II, MD – was chairman of both the Mather and St. Charles Hospital medical boards at one time. My mother, Evelyn, was a founder of the Auxiliary. I had four siblings and we all worked here.

I’ve been at Mather 49-plus years. I think I’m the longest-term employee. I didn’t think I would be here this long. I thought I was going to be doing something different. I went to Dowling and I got my MBA and I actually contemplated going to work for something like a Computer Associates. I try to be as understanding as I can when anyone comes to me for anything. I try to always be upbeat and positive and help anybody. What I found in the MBA program is in the business world that very often is not the way things work. That’s how I knew I had to stay where I was.

I found a man the other day wandering in the hallway and I said “Can I help you?” and he said “I just need to find my car.” I took him all the way down to the parking lot and he found his car. Then I took him back up to his wife and I had a wonderful visit with the two of them in her room upstairs. That’s what Mather’s about.
I’m going to miss the people at Mather. When I walk down the hallways, I get emotional now. People know that I’m leaving and they come over to me and they say, “Petra, I can’t believe you’re leaving. What are we going to do when you’re gone?” And I say “They’ll be somebody else who will do my job.”

The people I work with are really my family. Some of them have been working with me for over 40 years. I’ve been at their weddings. I know their kids, their grandkids. I’m very, very lucky. It really is a little mini-family here at Mather. They’re my crew, my peeps.

– Petra, Food & Nutritional Services
Photo: Petra in 1979, and today.

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My favorite family tradition is when we go to Colombia to visit our family. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do it recently. It’s so relaxing seeing family members I haven’t seen for two or three years. I also love meeting new family members when we go there. A cool moment was when I was with my grandmother and we went to visit her godmother who she hadn’t seen in almost 40 years. She was still living in the same house where my grandmother first met her. It was a really nice moment; she was very happy and began to cry. I felt happy for my grandmother because I knew this was a very special moment for her. I would love to show my future kids and grand-kids the town I grew up in on Long Island to give them an idea of what it was like. I would also love to show them Colombia and be able to share another memory with them in this special place.

-Luis, Patient Access

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My mom, Janet, was a patient at the Infusion Center for about three years. She had MDS – Myelodysplastic Syndromes – a blood disorder. She was diagnosed six years ago and unfortunately lost her battle on September 30, 2017. Initially after her diagnosis she’d go weekly to the doctor for an injection, and it kept her stable. When the condition progressed, she had to be given blood products at Mather’s Infusion Center. My mom wasn’t one to complain unless something was really negative. I know she felt well cared for and comfortable there right away. As her disease worsened, she would be at the Infusion Center getting platelets and/or whole blood. She spent from four to nine hours there each visit. She often would have a reaction to the platelets. The nurses were attuned to it and made sure they took care of her right away to minimize her discomfort. She always talked about them like they were family. It was easier on my family, too, knowing she was being well taken care of by such kind, loving people. She was 77 when she passed away in September, and is so dearly missed.

-Linda, patient’s daughter
Photo: Linda and Henry, patient’s husband

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Even though I don’t have direct patient care contact, I feel like everyone here contributes to positive patient outcomes. In a hospital setting there are so many different personalities and skill sets. Working with so many diverse individuals keeps me motivated and enthused to come to work every day, and I love what I do. When you work in a hospital setting you need to work as a team across many different professions, and the teams here are top notch. Working right in my own community is very important to me. Seeing the benefits that you can bring directly to your neighbors makes it all very satisfying. It makes you feel part of it. I feel proud to work for an organization that the community values. I see my role as doing all that I can to secure resources to support the caregivers who work so hard every day to deliver on our mission.

My ability to stay focused and drive positive change at work is directly linked to the support I get from home. I could not function very well without the tremendous understanding I get from my wife, Peggy, who truly has brought purpose and meaning to my life.

-Joe, Finance

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Thanksgiving is my mother’s favorite holiday. That means we do all things that mom likes to do. It’s at mom’s house. As she cooks, she listens to John Denver. Apparently, listening to him makes the stuffing taste better, but this is how my mom operates. Once she is done cooking, we sit and have this enormous meal. After we eat, my brother and brother-in-law wind up fighting over who gets the leftover stuffing, who has had more stuffing, and who has had more than their fair share. The evening concludes with my mom’s favorite movie which is the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We all sit on the couch in our pajamas and enjoy the movie together. Because of the love my mom has for this holiday, Thanksgiving is my favorite, too.

-Carson, Public Affairs

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My parents moved here from Connecticut when I was two years old. They worked on a farm there and Pops bought this piece of land, 37 acres of his own, on Baylis Avenue in Port Jefferson Station. He also leased other land to farm. We leased land from (John T.) Mather, 20-something acres that came over to Pine Hill Road. They had Mather’s farm going when we took over. I was a youngster yet. Pops still had the old Fordson tractor with steel wheels. He hadn’t gotten the rubber tire tractor yet. A couple of times he even plowed some of the land there by horse. We grew potatoes, cauliflower, beans, whatever.

I turned 95 on Oct. 9. I grew up in Port Jefferson Station where the farmhouse still is. I still live in the same house. We fixed it over a couple of times and it’s pretty modern. I worked the farm all the time I was growing up through high school. I had five sisters and they all worked on the farm.

I graduated in 1940 from Earl L. Vandermeulen High School. That’s all there was around here and everybody went there. During the war we were deferred because of farming. I don’t remember how long it was but there was a time in the 1940s when they sent us a notice saying you had to report to the Grand Central Palace in New York for your physical. We took the train from Patchogue, a whole trainload of us. After that they said go home; if we need you we’ll call you. They never called us up.

-Walter, Mather patient

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In 1991 I was in a small college in Corning, New York. I was going down a road with a little bit of black ice and there was a car in front of me that was turned sideways and that car wound up turning over and going into a ditch. I jumped out to see if I could help this woman. I heard three kids screaming and yelling and she was bleeding from one side of her head. It dawned on me real quick that I had no idea what to do. I was in an area that didn’t have 911 service yet. I didn’t know what number to call. There was no cell phone. I didn’t know the area well enough to know where the nearest house was. I panicked. Luckily for me, someone pulled up moments later. He was a member of the fire department and he knew what to do.

As soon as college finished I moved to North Carolina and I went right down to the local fire department and got a job as a volunteer. I did that for a number of years and actually got up to lieutenant status. After that I went into EMS because I wanted a wider berth of knowledge of how to help somebody in a bad situation. That was my first look at healthcare as a whole.

I really like helping patients. I can’t say enough how much I love what I do. My wife put it best: I get paid in little old lady hugs. When someone comes up to me after and thanks me and hugs me, that just makes my month. Those moments are worth much more to me than a paycheck.

-Craig, Imaging Services
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I’ve belonged to the fire department for the past 50 something years. About 30 years ago, we went into the ambulance service. I later retired, so now I am available during the day. One day there was a call, so I went to the firehouse and this one guy says, “Okay Al, you’re going to drive.” That was it. Ever since then, when I’m available, I drive.

Now, I’ve been driving the ambulance for 15 years. I probably drive maybe 65% of the time. This one day, we took this lady, who was supposedly having a heart attack to Mather Hospital. About an hour and half later, we took another woman to the hospital. Somehow, they ended up in the same room and they were talking about how they got there. They both said the Miller Place ambulance brought them there. The first woman said to the other, “Did you have an old guy drive you to the hospital too?” Turns out, it was me.

-Al, Ambulance Driver

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My parents got divorced when I was 11. It wasn’t sad or ugly – they both got re-married to completely awesome people. We wound up becoming a huge extended family. I am lucky enough to have four parents just on my side of the family. At my wedding I had my four parents and seven grandparents. I was raised by so many amazing people.

Now the reason my parents are so awesome is because they came from incredible parents. My grandfather came here from Italy. He only received an eighth grade education, then moved to America and joined the Army. He was in the 82nd Airborne – first to storm the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. He was captured and held prisoner. He was injured when he was captured, but he came home to raise a family in Dix Hills. He gave his family a beautiful life. My dad’s dad was also in World War II. He was in the Air Force and survived a plane crash. My grandma, who is still alive, is the absolute love of my life. Whenever I have any life questions, who else would you call but someone who has been alive for 90 something years?

My mom hosts Christmas every year. She manages to fit about 30 people at one table. Every year, my parents stand up for the toast and they get emotional because of how lucky we are. Some people have nothing. We have this amazing family all because of my grandparents and my parents. I want to do the same for my children. I told my kids that I need three grandchildren from each kid.

-Patty, Revenue Cycle

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This year has been a happy year for me, but it’s been a very sad year also. Happy, because of the birth of my beautiful granddaughter, Ava. She has brought pure joy into all of our lives. Sad, because we lost the most amazing woman in our world, our mother. Mom passed away in May from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her battle lasted only about a year but she handled it with grace and dignity. I think back to her life and realize she didn’t have it easy. My mother was widowed at the age of 43 with six kids to raise. She never said, “Why me?” She took it on like no other and showed us all love and affection all of the time. She taught us the value of family. She taught us the importance of being satisfied with what you have and not longing for what you don’t have. It’s how we all live our lives – even the grandchildren.

I know she will be watching over all of us every day. I miss her dearly but she always told us to hold on to the memories. That helps me through the hard times. I may not have everything I ever wanted, but I have my family, my health, a job, and a roof over my head. To me that is everything.

-Lisa, Environmental Services

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I have to give bad news every day, but it’s the way that you give bad news so that way it makes everything seem ok, because we’re going to do everything to make it better. Then there are the cases where people pass away and a little piece of my heart goes with them each time. But the way you deal with it is by looking back at how you treated them and you assure yourself you treated that person better than anyone else could have – that this person could not have gotten any better treatment. You gave them the very best. That makes me feel better. I still get sad but then I get thank you cards every day from patients and their families and they make me feel better. I keep them all in a box and look at them. It makes it all worth it. They’re not patients after a certain amount of time, they’re your friends.

-David, Medical Oncologist

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I’m most proud of my house because I built it myself. I was a construction supervisor for ten years starting when I was 19 years old. Originally it was a small cottage. I gutted out the cottage and revamped the house from there. It has been 18 years. Everything in that house I did. I had help from my father-in-law, my brother-in-law and I hired a contractor who was a friend of the family to help with some of the framing. I did the whole upstairs, the roof, the windows, all the siding, all the sheathing and I paid someone to do the insulation. I did all the wiring and all of the plumbing.

It makes me feel accomplished, especially when I pull in the driveway. It makes me feel like anything can be done.

-Wayne, Information Services

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I had a recent life-changing moment. My wife’s best friend died of breast cancer and two months later, in November, my sister died from Leukemia. That kind of makes you think and put me back on track in terms of reminding me that life is not as long as you think it’s going to be. It reminded me to spend more time with the people that I love. I made a commitment to do that this year. I have four children: Claire is 13, Peter is 12, Elise is 9, and Benjamin is 7. I can’t go an entire day without speaking to my wife; she’s my best friend and she knows me the best. My wife and I want to take our four children on a two-week vacation to see the national parks. So I am making sure to take vacations and spend time with my wife and kids.

-Adam, Emergency Medicine Physician

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Quite a few years ago me and my friend gave historic tours of Long Island. We’d rent a big bus and take people all over the Island and stop at different sites. We called our business “At Your Service – History Tours of Long Island.” I stood in the front of the bus and narrated the tours over a microphone. Back then not many people knew about the history here. We talked about the names of the Long Island towns and their significance in Native American culture. We explored the Three Village area with its rich colonial history and George Washington’s Setauket Spy Ring. And we’d go all the way to Greenport and talk about how during prohibition Greenport became a thriving center for rum-running. We always took the back roads so it would be more scenic. Once our bus got stuck under a bridge, but that’s a story for another time.

I’m an exhibitionist so I used to sing over the microphone. We did anything to keep our guests entertained. We always asked our guests to fill out a survey at the end so we knew if they liked their tour. One person left me a note on his survey that read, “Don’t sing.” My friend is still in business and you can bet I am still singing.

-Louise, Mather Auxiliary/Thrift Shop Volunteer
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I love interior designing. My husband and I bought our house four years ago and so far we’ve redone every room. I’m really into making my own furniture. We’re like a little team. I call us Ribeiro Renovations, kind of like Chip and Joanna of Fixer Upper.
What we really like to do is make barn doors. My husband makes them and I distress and stain them. We had a bathroom and I ended up buying a barn door off of Etsy and my husband said “I can make that.” So we decided to do custom closet doors that are like actual barn doors. He bought all the wood and he made them, and I took all his tools in the garage and I just distressed them and I stained them. It’s not like a science. I just go with it and each one is different. It’s like a shabby chic rustic look.

I made my headboard out of pallet. My in-laws had redone their kitchen and the kitchen cabinets came on this pallet. I said that’s the biggest pallet I’d ever seen. I measured it and it was the perfect size for a king bed headboard. So we took the pieces off and rearranged them and he put it together and made a headboard and I distressed it and stained it. We do the floating box shelves for the wall. We’ve done wood beams on the ceiling. I like to make really funky things.

I really enjoy the fact that it’s mine and I can do whatever I want and if I don’t like it I can redo it. I just love doing something from start to finish and then seeing the end product and saying “Yeah, I made that.”

-Karinna, Bariatric Center of Excellence

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I needed knee surgery, so I came to Mather. My doctors were great and my nurses in surgery and recovery were amazing. Their concern and care for me and all the patients was evident. They epitomize what we all look for in a medical environment.

There’s that little bit of levity when it comes to the nurses at Mather. It’s fabulous. I call it “icebreakers.” When I went in for my surgery at 6 AM, the first nurse I met said I was the first patient of the day, so I said to her, “Do I win anything?” When we were walking into the operating room one of the nurses said, “Come on in, table for one and there’s no waiting.”

Those kinds of exchanges brought a feeling of warmth to my experience. I told a friend of mine about it. She summed it up perfectly. She said, everyone at Mather is kind and kindness speaks volumes. I couldn’t agree more.

– Bob, Surgery Patient

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One of my favorite things to do is sing karaoke. Years ago, when our children were young, my husband’s best friend and his wife had a little karaoke machine in their basement and we used to have a ball singing together on the weekends. We’d all go out to dinner and then go to their house and sing our hearts out. It was so much fun. Sadly, my husband passed away six years ago, which changed my life quickly and dramatically.

For the last couple of years I was ready to begin the next chapter of my life and wanted to become social again. Then in December, that same friend, also single now, called me up to attend the yearly Post Office Retirees Holiday Dinner. This is a yearly event and I would receive this call every year to attend. In the past I never wanted to attend this function because it was too painful, but my son always did. This year when I received the call to attend, we ended up talking on the phone for an hour and a half and I accepted the invitation. We have been dating ever since. We go out and sing karaoke together every week. One of my favorite songs to sing is “Old Time Rock and Roll”. It’s really enjoyed by the audience. It’s an upbeat, fast song that makes me feel happy and alive.

I’ve met great new friends and many interesting people through singing karaoke. I like the familiarity of my new relationship. We have known each other for 30 years and we feel very comfortable with each other. We are happy and we are still singing karaoke together.

– Carol, Revenue Cycle Management

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I started flying for the airlines in 1958. I was a flight attendant for Northeast Airlines, which later was taken over by Delta. It was the greatest job in the world. I worked the New York to Miami route. I have very fond memories. I got to meet Bob Hope, John Glenn and Frank Torre, to name a few.

Times were different in 1958. When I applied for the job, I was over age and under-weight. I had a child, and they never knew it. I had to hide it. In those days you couldn’t get the job if you were married. I was divorced, and I never let anyone know. I was concerned that I’d never get the job but my mother encouraged me and told me to go for it.

The standards were specific: You had to be under a certain age. You had to be a certain weight. You had to be a certain height. You couldn’t wear glasses. You had to be single and never had been married. When I went for my physical, I knew I was too skinny, so I put weights in my pants, so I’d meet the weight requirement.

Luckily, the man who hired me liked red heads. I had red hair and blue eyes. When I went for my interview, I asked him how soon I would know whether or not I got the job? He said, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you have the job.” When I went to flight school for training, every one of the girls in the class that he had interviewed had red hair and blue eyes.

My husband and I met at the airline. We had to keep it a secret when we got married. When he was taking care of my plane, I always knew I was safe. We had to keep our marriage a secret or I would have lost my job. After a few years, he told one of his friends that I was pregnant. The chief of all the flight attendants found out and unfortunately, I had to resign. My husband stayed with the airline for twenty years.

It was a great job. I really enjoyed it.

– Lucille, Thrift Shop Volunteer

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I’m a quilter. I’ve been making quilts since 1968. I belong to a group called The Sound Quilters. Every year we go on a quilting retreat to Montauk Manor. We quilt for three days straight and it’s great. It’s relaxing. We also meet frequently at the Port Jefferson Library to quilt. Over the years I’ve made hundreds of quilted items. I have a room in my house dedicated to just fabric. I call myself a “fabricoholic.” Every time I go shopping I always pick up at least one new piece of fabric.

I give most of my quilts away. People are so appreciative. It’s a precious gift to receive. I make quilts for my six grandchildren, my two great grandchildren, my friends and people in need. They all have special meaning to me. I’m working on one now made of my husband’s silk ties. He passed away 18 years ago. I will keep that one for myself.

– Barbara, Mather Auxiliary
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Since I was a little girl I wanted to be in healthcare. At Stony Brook, I worked as a nurse on the cardiac unit which also had pulmonary patients. A coordinator position opened up for a new program, the Lung Cancer Evaluation Center. It was a multidisciplinary program to evaluate for patients with abnormal CT scans, or suspicious of or diagnosed with lung cancer. I applied, interviewed and got the job.

That program was the beginning for me. I learned a lot working with the doctors in oncology, surgery radiology and pulmonology and felt like I was able to give people a better experience through coordinating their care. I helped the patients through the system so they didn’t have to figure things out on their own. It’s hard for a lung cancer patient to have to go from one doctor to another doctor, the prep work, and surgery. I wound up being the contact person to get them to where they needed to go and acted as a liaison between the physicians.

I came to Mather to apply my knowledge and create an environment for patients where they feel comfortable and can get a different experience. Working as a nurse navigator, I have the ability to help my patients get to the right care by helping to coordinate their services and answer their questions . Sometimes it is just picking up the phone to make an appointment for them so they don’t have to. People don’t always get that type of service. That little bit of extra touch, being a close contact, takes a huge burden off of them, especially if there being diagnosed with something serious.

Here, with Lung Cancer Screening I have the opportunity to sit with people one on one talking about smoking cessation and we’ve been successful with getting people to stop smoking. Getting people to stop smoking after years is so rewarding because it’s changing a life.

What’s so wonderful about our Lung Cancer Screening Program is that we can catch lung cancer early before it progresses and harder to treat. In total, we’ve screened over a thousand patients, and have diagnosed at least 32 people with lung cancer.

Eileen, Imaging Services
#humansofmatherhospital #matherhospital

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I always wanted to go to medical school, but due to financial pressures I chose a career that would get me a job as quickly as possible. I majored in computer science and worked in the defense industry as a Systems Engineer for 12 years. I traveled a lot and got to work on a lot of interesting projects. If you’ve seen the movie War Games, I’ve worked on that kind of thing. One of my favorite projects was with an F16 Trainer and I got to work with the Thunderbirds. I have a Master’s Degree in computer science, and because I was still interested in how the brain worked, my Masters’ thesis was a computerized neuro-network project. The brain has always fascinated me.

I thought maybe the dream of going to medical school would fade away, but it never did. I finally decided enough was enough and I wasn’t going to wait anymore. It was time to go back and pursue my dream.

I took night classes while working at Lockheed Martin to acquire all the prerequisites for medical school. I’m really happy I did it. I feel that I fit very well in psychiatry, which is what I originally wanted to do. Ever since I read the Thomas Harris book “Silence of the Lambs” it triggered an interest in psychiatry. I’m a PGY 1 – the first year of a four year residency. It’s been a very convoluted path, but I’m thrilled to be here pursuing my dream.
-Charisse, Psychiatry Resident
#matherhospital #humansofmatherhospital #matherpsychiatryresidency #mathergraduatemedicaleducation

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I’m originally from Ukraine. Since I was a little girl I always wanted to be a doctor. I tried research for a while but soon realized I liked being with patients. I wanted to treat people. I chose endocrinology in medical school because it was fascinating to me to learn about all of the body’s pathways and how everything is connected. With endocrinology you’re able to do so much for people. You can identify a problem and help them manage it.
Being a doctor makes you look at things differently. It has really taught me a lot about people. It’s amazing how people can make changes in themselves when they really set their mind to something. People take the craziest hits and are able to pull through it. It really makes your day. I’m cheering my patients on. One of the hugest draws in medicine for me is that I can be there for them.
-Ella, Endocrinologist
#matherhospital #harborviewendocrinology #humansofmatherhospital #endocrinology

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I’ve had many mentors throughout my life – people who have believed in me and people who taught me valuable lessons. From my baseball coaches growing up to my co-workers today, so many individuals played a role in who I am. Because of that I try to “give back” any way that I can. I teach healthcare administration to college students because I want to teach others as I have been taught. It’s a good feeling to see your students in fulfilling careers, and maybe I had something to do with that. But looking back, my most prized accomplishment was coaching my son’s baseball team for 11 years.

I played ball when I was young and I was proud to see my son follow in my footsteps. They were great kids. It was so much more than baseball. As coaches we saw them grow up. Being on a team taught them, and us, so much. We tried to teach them about life. It’s fun to see them now as young adults going in different directions. It feels great when you put your heart and soul into something. Maybe I’m considered a mentor to a few of those kids. I hope so.

-Mike, Hospital Administration
#matherhospital #humansofmatherhospital #coaching #mentoring

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I got my first medical degree in China in clinical medicine. In China you don’t need to go to undergraduate school. You go directly to medical school. It’s a five-year program, and then you go to a residency. When I finished I was accepted into an advanced three-year Master’s program for cardiovascular pharmacology.

During that time a professor from Germany came to our university to give a talk. He asked if I would like to get my PhD in Germany. They were doing research on stem cells. It was a very hot topic. I did research at the University of Cologne Medical School in the Department of Neurophysiology for four years. I received my PhD and graduated summa cum laude. When I finished, they offered me a job at the university. But there were some family concerns. My son was born in Germany and we sent him to German kindergarten, and he was speaking German. Even though I was in Germany I spoke English most of the time. I couldn’t understand him! I said to my wife, “What is he talking about?” We had a family discussion. If I stayed there I would have to learn to speak German.
Friends in United States said why don’t you see if you can find a job here? That was in 2002. I got an invitation from Professor Ira Cohen and came to Stony Brook University Hospital. I became a research assistant professor. I worked with Professor Cohen in the Department of Physiology doing research in stem cells, working on a biological pacemaker. They had a problem and in one month I solved the problem and we published an article. Everyone was so excited.

I liked research but on the other hand I wanted to see and talk to patients. I took the U.S. medical licensing examination and I passed. I applied to Mather’s residency program and was accepted. Patient care is essential to becoming a physician and this residency program gave me that training.

My family and I like it here and now we don’t have any problems. My son is 17 and in high school, and he speaks English!
-Zhongju Lu, MD, Internal Medicine Residency Program

#matherhospital #humansofmatherhospital #internalmedicineresidency #stemcellresearch #graduatemedicaleducation

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I kind of went into this blindly. I had no previous knowledge of the medical field. I think what sparked me to go into the EMT program was that in a year’s time I lost three people who were close to me. One of those people was my father. He died of a heart attack. I decided then that I wanted to be with people during their worst times. I wanted to help them like they helped my father.

When I show up at a scene I try to connect with the person who is in need. Being an EMT is very rewarding. People are so thankful when we help them. It makes me feel proud to do it. I want to be a police officer one day. I think being an EMT first will help me connect with people and help me do my job better.

-Bryanna, Port Jefferson Volunteer Ambulance EMT
#matherhospital #humansofmatherhospital #emts #volunteerambulance #emsweek2017
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I knew I loved science since seventh grade. I had a biology teacher in ninth grade when I went to St. Anthony’s and she was the bomb – awesome! Since then I planned on getting my Bachelor’s degree in biology. I gained general knowledge with lab work and all of the classes that I took involved the medical field, and I loved it.

When I graduated, in order to gain some experience and get my foot in the door, I became an EMT in Port Jefferson. I wanted to do it in my own backyard. We have paramedics here that answer every call. They are phenomenal teachers. They are great people. If you had asked me five or six years ago I would have said that I couldn’t handle the emergency life. Now I love it! You learn all the techniques for any emergency situation and if something happens in life you don’t panic like the average person. The type of people, the environment, the new challenges and experiences that you encounter, train you. You never know what you’re going to walk into and it forces you to always be ready!

I have seen the good and the bad and as a kid you don’t believe what is out there until you see it firsthand. Being an EMT has definitely given me a new appreciation for my life and relationships. As an EMT, you’re part of something bigger than yourself and you make a difference every day.

-Nicole, Port Jefferson Volunteer Ambulance EMT
#matherhospital #humansofmatherhospital #emts #volunteerambulance #emsweek2017
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My mother, C. Elizabeth Sini, was a registered nurse back in the 30’s when there weren’t people with an education beyond high school. She left her home in Pattersonville, NY to go to Amsterdam, NY and she moved in with a friend of my grandmother’s. She went to Amsterdam High School where she took all the chemistry and bio and all the sciences she had to have. She knew from a very young age she wanted to be a nurse. She was a private duty nurse and she did private duty at Mather.

My father went to Notre Dame and to Syracuse, and that’s where he met my mother. My father was from Rocky Point. He came back to Long island and she did her practicals at Bellevue Hospital in New York. Then she came out here to Port Jefferson Station and worked at Mather. During WWII he was in the Air Force and he would go from air base to air base. My mother would follow him and do nursing wherever she went. When he got discharged, they moved back to their house in Port Jefferson Station.

The last week of my mother’s life was spent at Mather Hospital. She was thrilled to be there because the nurses found out she was a nurse and had worked at Mather very early on. She had had a stroke and she couldn’t say a lot, but she kept saying how well her fellow nurses took care of her, and we could see it. They would do her hair. They put on makeup for her. It was just beautiful. My mother said she had spoken to my dad – who had died – who said it was time for her to come. She had very bad arthritis and was very much in pain. When we went to visit her, she said I’m not leaving here. She said it was time. When she died, my brother and I could only smile.

I think she would be thrilled with the nursing quality at Mather today and how the nurses and doctors work together. I think she would be very happy with how educated nurses are now. She was a beautiful mother and a great nurse.

-John, Hospital Board Member
#matherhospital #humansofmatherhospital #nursing

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I’ve been volunteering for an organization that helps breast cancer patients by providing free exercise, nutrition and wellness classes. The exercise classes and the nutritional counseling are very helpful to strengthen the body but the wellness retreats really round out the whole program. They tap into the mind, body and soul. It’s just amazing. This program empowers women (and men) to be their best, and to feel their best. I get to witness the transformation. It’s a great thing to be a part of. I get to see people connect with each other. Many use it as a way to gain socialization skills after cancer because that can be a lonely time for people. My good friend has cancer now and I’m able to help her get through it. It means a lot to me to be able to take this journey with her and to be a part of the bigger picture for others.

-Jennifer, Mather Primary Care

#strengthforlife #breastcancer #poweredbyhope #humansofmatherhospital #matherhospital

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I think of myself as a doctor and a novelist, although I haven’t published anything yet. I started out life as a cardiologist. I worked for 20 years at Princeton Medical Center and in the span of few years both my parents passed away and my wife and I decided to move up to Massachusetts to be closer to my wife’s family. I took a year off from medicine to write novels. There are two. One is an historical novel set in New York City from roughly 1910 to the 60s. It’s loosely based on an uncle by marriage who was involved with the labor unions, kind of a nefarious character.

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I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I came here when I was 15 and I didn’t speak any English. My mother went to heaven when I was only 10, so I basically raised myself (En el Barrio) on the streets of Puerto Rico. I came here to live with one of my sisters who was living in Saint James. My entire life changed when I came here, it was the best thing I ever did. I literally packed my bags hours before getting on a plane to leave Puerto Rico and I knew it was forever. Part of me didn’t want to leave my beautiful island and the other part of me knew that I had no choice. So I came here to turn my life around. It was the hardest thing to do, but I had to make the choice to make a better life for myself. I feel like I am a very strong person because if everything that I went through didn’t break me, then nothing ever will.

I am a very caring person and I have a huge heart. I am a mother of three. My oldest daughter Idalis is my pride. She is 21 and is graduating from college this May. My precious baby girl, Arianna is three and my handsome baby boy Robert is 20 months old. I am truly blessed with my family and the best husband/best friend someone could ever have. I love my life and every opportunity that comes my way because everything is always a learning experience. As I always say, I am too blessed to be stressed!

– Idalia, Breast Cancer Screening Navigator
#humansofmatherhospital #matherhospital #puertorico #tooblessedtobestressed

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When we got Esmeralda I could tell by her personality that she was special. We had her in puppy school right away. Esmeralda is phenomenal. She does exactly what I need her to do, when I need her to do it.

My mother had Alzheimer’s and, at the time, was walking with a walker. Esmeralda would come with me when I would visit (mom) in North Carolina. She was a very tame and docile animal, but there was something different when she was with my mother. Esme would walk behind my mother, not impeding her, just making sure that she got to where she was going. Then when my mother was in a wheelchair, Esme would just sit right next to her. When we would move the wheelchair, Esme would again just walk behind. Then mom was bed ridden and Esme would get in the bed and she just knew exactly where to lie so that my mother could pet her.

So we enrolled Esme into pet therapy classes. Before we had Esme, my husband was hospitalized (at Mather). I was so impressed with the care that he received and that I received as a caretaker of a loved one. It was like we were the only two people here and every nurse and doctor was on our team. So I joined the Volunteer Department (at Mather Hospital) and Esme became the pilot pup for the pet therapy program on the Telemetry Unit. She even has her own hospital badge and her own business cards, so everyone can have a little piece of Esme after she leaves.

-Ginnie and Esmeralda, Volunteer and therapy dog
#humansofmatherhospital #matherhospital #volunteers #pettherapy #therapydog

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I have had a couple patients that I will never forget, but this one in particular was special to me. At the oncology practice I worked at before coming to Mather, I developed a lot of special relationships with my patients. We had this one lady; she was young with lung cancer. She was just scared and so nervous all the time and could be kind of hard to get to know. She loved us and we loved her. Every year she got us Christmas presents and one year she got us this wind chime. As soon as I got it, I hung it. She gave it to us probably about a year before she passed away and I’ve had it for about five years. It’s really special.

You don’t realize it until you really sit down and think about it; when you’re in your day-to-day life, you’re just doing. You’re just doing your job. You’re doing it with love, but you’re just doing your job and you don’t realize the impact you’re making on people … and what they do for you.

-Carrie, RN, Oncology Educator
#humansofmatherhospital #matherhospital #nursing #oncology

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I had a career before I became a nurse. For 10 years I was in assets and marketing in (New York) City. When I began having children, I wanted to be home with them and I wanted a career that I’d feel proud about. I have three aunts who were registered nurses. I’ve always admired them and looked up to them. They were the women in the family who were always solving problems and making us all feel better when we were sick. They were the “go to” women of our family. I decided I wanted to emulate that and be that kind of person for my family. I wanted to set a good example for my children.

I went to nursing school and I flourished. It was the right fit for me. I was hired at Mather as a new nursing grad. I started in critical care and knew it was the right place for me. To me being a nurse means that I am able to help patients and their families when they need it the most. This job has meaning and it has a positive impact on so many lives, including mine. I love it.

-Lisa, RN
Assistant Nurse Manager, 3 North
#registerednurse #criticalcare #matherhospital #humansofmatherhospital

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My mother was a Prussian and she kind of suppressed humor at home, so once I went to college I started honing it. Puns came very easily to me. Then it just spread from there. I’ve never done stand-up. I prefer small audiences I can see.

I told my therapist I’ve been coming here for over 50 years and I’m no better. He said “Jake, just imagine what you’d be like if you hadn’t come!”

Humor has helped me. The first time I used humor in medicine, I was at Nassau County Medical Center. A guy comes in and he says he is throwing up blood. I said I’m going put a tube in through your nose and we’ll see how much you’re bleeding. Then he vomits up a quart of blood. He looks at me and he says. “Am I gonna die?” I said, “I don’t know, but if you live you owe me a tie.”

I found out humor can break the tension. What did Oscar Wilde say? “Life is too important to be taken seriously.” I banter with my patients. Maybe one in a hundred says, “Get rid of this guy!” Most appreciate it. It’s an ice breaker but they know right away that I know what’s going on.

I asked my doctor for a second opinion. He said, “Jake – you’re ugly, too!”

-Jake, Hospitalist
#humor #hospitalist #humorandmedicine

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My parents grew up in Cairo, Egypt. Being Christian put a lot of restrictions on their lives. They quickly realized after they were married and started their family that they needed to leave because things weren’t going to get better for them in the long haul. They were not safe there. In 1968, my father emigrated to the U.S. Back then they only let you enter if you had a professional degree. My dad had a Master’s, and they would only allow you to bring no more than $200 in savings. He virtually had nothing when he arrived here. It was too expensive to fly my mother and sister over at the time, so he stayed at the YMCA and worked three jobs. He sent for them about a year later.

My sister is nine years older than me. She became my second mother while my parents worked. When I turned 17 I thought I wanted to follow in my mother’s footsteps and go into accounting. At that time my mother gave me good advice. She said, “Whatever you decide to do, be your own boss.” While she was giving me that life lesson, I also started to really enjoy biology and microbiology in high school. That led me to explore healthcare and medicine and I decided to go to medical school.

Everything my parents did was ultimately for their children. They wanted us to have the opportunities they weren’t able to have themselves. I really feel that in order to frame your story, you need to appreciate that there was a story before your story.

-Dave, Cardiologist
#family #medicalschool #microbiology #humansofmatherhospital

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A – Years ago, I was working on the night shift, as a clinical assistant, while in my last year of nursing school. It was then I had the pleasure to work with Maryann, she was the RN who was assigned to work on my unit that night. I was so impressed. She had 11 or 12 patients that night, one whole hall. She was so organized. She was so kind to every patient making everyone feel so safe, they never knew that we were frazzled. The next night, I saw the house supervisor, Anita. I told her “I worked with the best nurse last night. If I could ever be even half the nurse that woman is I would be so proud.”

M – I was in ICU and she was one of new people that came in on nights. I was very impressed with the way she took care of her patients. There was a problem with a patient and we took care of the patient and when we were all done I said “I think it’s wonderful how you handled that patient.” And she said “I thought you were going to say something negative because I’ve only been a clinical assistant for a year”

A- We worked in the ICU together for many years. We used to run around the ICU at night, taking care of our patients. In the morning, we would make sure the rooms were neat, the garbage emptied, because if the patient’s family walked in, they would have a sense of comfort knowing the patient was well cared for all night.
Now Maryann is the coordinator for the Joint Program. She will do anything for her patients; recently a patient who just had a hip replacement and was discharged home. The durable goods company did not deliver the commode, which is necessary after a hip replacement. It was a weekend, so Maryann got in her car and delivered the commode to the patient. She really is the shining example of who you want taking care of you.

M- When I was starting up the Total Joint Replacement Program the Bariatric program was functioning quite effectively and efficiently. AnnaMarie was very helpful to me in starting to set up my program. She told me what processes were successful and what failed. Both AnnaMarie and I have nursing interwoven into our genes. It’s a part of us. Patients are so brave and trusting. They come in and they don’t even know us and they trust us with taking care of them and they trust us with their loved ones.

AnnaMarie Braslow and I have been friends for almost 20 years now. We’re both grandmothers. We just took our grandkids out to the East End. We did the aquarium, we did the Riverhead Jungle Safari, we went bowling, and the kids get along really well. We both like to travel to the Caribbean on the beach. We go to the Dominican Republic. She has a time share there.

-AnnaMarie (Bariatrics) and MaryAnn (Orthopedics)
Pictured: AnnaMarie Braslow (left) and MaryaAnn Goodman.
#humansofmatherhospital #nursing #bariatriccenterofexcellence #jointreplacement

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Jim: I’m from New Jersey. She’s from Wisconsin.

Megan: We’ve known each other for seven years. We met in med school in Grenada in anatomy lab. Our first unofficial date was at Disneyland. Our friend ditched us so we could spend the day together.

Jim: We came to Mather for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Megan got here first.She’s in her third year. I’m in my second year.

Megan: Mather makes sure to separate us. I’m a third year so I would be his senior, so they make sure we’re not on the same rotation together. Occasionally you will find us trying to find each other.

Jim: We do four weeks in the hospital and two weeks outside of the hospital. There’s only two weeks at a time where we would be in the hospital working at the same time.

Megan: We don’t often get chances to work with each other given the schedule structure. But we always try to find each other to have lunch together.

Jim: We love that at Mather everybody knows who you are and you can get to know everybody. There’s not a lot of strangers around. It’s nice and kind of like home more than anything.

Megan: The program makes it so we can have a life outside of work so we do get to see each other.

Jim: We’ve been engaged since May 2016 and we have a tentative wedding date, which is October of 2018. We do Valentine’s Day ourselves so we aren’t going out to dinner.

Megan: Were going to cook dinner together and watch Netflix.

-Megan Haberlein, MD, Internal Medicine Residency Program
-Jamie Gonzalez, MD, Internal Medicine Residency Program

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C: We’ve known each other since I was 7 and he was 9. Our best friends, Tara and Phil Brady, are brother and sister. Every time I’d go to my friend Tara’s house, I’d always see Frank there. I had a huge crush on him and he never knew it. Frank used to look after me like a little sister. I used to write “Christine Christiano” in my notebook hoping one day we’d get married. After my sophomore year in college, I came home for a visit and I decided to tell him how I felt. We’ve been together ever since.

F: I had no idea how she felt about me growing up. I treated her like my kid sister and I protected her fiercely from boys. When she finally told me how she felt I went for it. We are still close with Tara and Phil. Phil was my best man at our wedding and he’s godfather to our daughter Erin. Since we were kids, our families have spent Christmas Eve with the Brady’s and we still do.

C: Mrs. Brady still keeps Tara’s room the way it was. We recently looked at the “love notes” I used to write to Frank but never sent him. Those childhood memories are great.

– Christine, Hospital Administration
– Frank, Environmental Services

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My wife Marie passed away seven years ago from breast cancer. She was diagnosed 21 years ago. She went through chemotherapy for almost a year and afterwards everything was fine. Nine years later her cancer came back. She passed away five years later.

During her treatments, she was cared for at Mather Hospital. Marie received the utmost care from the staff. They were professional, caring and respectful on all occasions during Marie’s visits. Everyone, from the Emergency Department to the physicians and physicians assistants, the wonderful caring Nursing staff and even the staff in Environmental Services treated Marie as though she was a member of their family. For this alone, I am forever grateful to Mather Hospital.

We started an annual Rocky Point St. Patrick’s Day parade party before my wife passed away and this year will be our ninth year. For the last six years we have been raising money in Marie’s memory through our party for the Fortunato Breast Health Center at Mather Hospital. Every year MJM Plumbing & Mechanical, it’s employees, my family and friends all help to make this party a success. We have doubled the donations made each year and this year our goal is to raise $20,000! I am confident we will achieve that goal!

– Jim Mangan, Familes Walk & Run for Hope fundraiser

Pictured: Brothers Jim, Mike and Billy Mangan (right) and father Jim at the 2015 parade.
#famileswalkandrunforhope #breastcancer #breasthealth

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I have been volunteering with Yorkie911 Rescue for about seven years now. Our rescue consists of a network of foster homes. We take in small breed dogs less than 15 pounds that people are unable to care for, dogs that come through puppy-mill transports, older and sick dogs that are in shelters, and we find “fur-ever” homes for them. By fostering the dogs in our homes, it allows us the opportunity to assess their temperament and determine if they are okay with other animals, children, etc. This makes it possible to find the best home for each dog.
Our biggest fundraising event, “Rescues Rock the Runway”, takes place the first week in June. We choose two-three doggie designers who create a collection to show on the runway using our rescue dogs. They are escorted down the runway by good-looking men! The guests can bring their dogs to the event, enter contests and have a chance to win more than 100 raffle baskets. To date we have adopted out more than 950 dogs. The best part of rescue is seeing them flourish in their fur-ever homes.
-Liz, Revenue Cycle
#humansofmatherhospital #yorkie911 #yorkierescue #dogrescue

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B- We’ve been working at the soup kitchen at the First Presbyterian Church in Port Jefferson for 25 years. We all have our own little areas. Jeanine and I always serve the first course.
J- We do the “hors d’oeuvres.” We could have a fruit cup. We could have soup.
B – We have wonderful fresh fruit and cheeses.
J- We get all that stuff from Trader Joe’s.
B- We always do dessert together, too. We set up and we serve. We are there from 3-7 on Friday nights. You live somewhere and you have to give back. You have to say “How lucky I am!” What can I do to help someone else who is not that fortunate and maybe just can’t get out of it?
J – I grew up during the Depression and I can tell you I ate oatmeal three times a day because that’s what we had. We were very fortunate to come out of it and do as well as we are doing. The people we work with at the soup kitchen are fantastic. The clientele are so grateful and you can see that we have made a difference that night. They say “God bless you.” There are other ways we help them. We give out extra clothes or food.
B- Right after the birth of her third child my daughter had a heart attack and my husband and I moved to Virginia to take care of her. I was overwhelmed with the things that had been done for us by the people there and I knew I had to give back. When we moved back I went to volunteer at St. Charles Hospital and I was co-chair of the consignment shop. Then I went to the soup kitchen and I met Jeanine. Jeanine said “Why don’t you come to Mather?” When St. Charles closed its consignment shop, I came here. We enjoy each other’s company. We have a lot of things in common. We love the opera. We always went to the opera together.
J- She’s a peach.
B- And by the way, we’re old – I’m 86. I don’t even mind telling people that. And I play golf.
J- I’m a year older than she is – 87. If you look at people who are active they don’t look their age. It keeps you going.

-Jeanine and Barbara, Thrift Shop Volunteers
#humansofmatherhospital #volunteers #WelcomeINN #welcomefriends #soupkitchen

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M: I’ve been a nurse for 32 years. Nursing is my life. Nursing and the nursing profession is why I come to work every day in this challenging time in healthcare.

A: My brother Christopher was very sick all of his life. He was diagnosed with cancer at age one. Seeing him in and out of the hospital for so many years made me understand the importance of good healthcare and I began to value my mother and her nursing profession. My mom did everything for my brother and for us kids. I was proud of her then. And I’m proud of her now.

M: Amanda was born into a life with a mother who was taking care of patients every day at work and taking care of her brother every day at home. She saw both sides of healthcare. I was a single mother and I worked full time because we needed the health insurance. At 11 Christopher developed another cancer from all of his treatments. He lost his vision from the cancer that affected his optic nerve. Christopher wanted to be home so his oncologist let me administer many of his treatments at home. It wasn’t easy but we did it. We wanted him at home with us.

A: Watching my mom take care of my brother had a big influence on what I decided to study in college. I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare. When it came time for me to choose a career path I considered medical school but I wanted to start my career and have children early in life. I wasn’t sure I could do that with so many years of college and then a residency. I went to pharmacy school because I thought it would be a good fit for me. And it was.

M: As a student, Amanda was brilliant in science and math. She already knew everything about all of the chemo drugs. Being a pharmacist is a great career for her. And working together at the same hospital is a bonus.

A: I’m pregnant now and I’m having a boy. We are naming him Christopher.

M: When they told me they were naming their baby Christopher I was emotional. (My son) Christopher lived with cancer for 17 years. He’s gone now but his memory will live on with my first grandchild. It’s a real honor.

-Marie, Chief Nursing Officer and
Amanda, Assistant Director of Pharmacy
(Mother and daughter)
#humansofmatherhospital #nursing #healthcare #family

Photo caption: Marie and Amanda in front of Christopher’s childhood artwork.

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One of the biggest components of my family’s life is dance. It started out with our daughters attending a once-a-week Saturday morning ballet class for 45 minutes. It has now become six to nine hours a week per child (we have two daughters). The reason I selected this dance studio was because it was the studio where I danced as a child. With the same owners still there, there is such a familiarity about the place. It was nice to go back after not having danced for over 17 years.

One of the most charming memories was watching Jillian’s first recital. It just so happens that the number, the Can-Can, was one of the last dances I did when I was 16 years old. We always had our recitals at East Islip High School and that’s where they held my daughter’s first recital (and they have every year since). It happened to be an Olympic theme. It was so emotional for me when the girls came out from the lobby into the auditorium with the Olympic theme song playing, holding their flags as they marched in and knowing it was my daughter’s first recital.

Every year, it is still so exciting to watch both girls perform on stage. So, I guess I’ve evolved into a “Dance Mom.” It’s nothing like the TV show; we’re not attacking and fighting each other. We’re a group of women (and men) who want our children to be successful. We want them to have the ability to feel beautiful, proud, and to be a part of a team. It is a privilege and blessing to relive dance memories with my girls.

– Jen, Revenue Cycle Management
#humansofmatherhospital #dance #dancemoms

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For ten years I’ve been brewing my own beer. I grow my own hops in my backyard. The whole process of brewing takes about 6 weeks from start to finish. Anytime people hear you’re making beer that weekend, you have five to ten people that like to observe. It’s a good opportunity to hang out with friends. We just bottled a batch this past weekend. It’s a Kentucky Bourbon Stout. Now I have to wait a week or two for it to carbonate and see if it’s any good.

I like to make things that have a lot of steps to them. I also make my own bread.  You can make bread in so many different ways. It can get really complex with a lot of different ingredients. I have my own flour mill. It’s a motor mill that I put grains into. I also make my own yeast by letting rye flour sit and ferment for about a week. I like to see if I can make bread by making my own ingredients.

I’ve made other things like pickles from cucumbers that I’ve grown in the garden too. Eventually I’d like to try making my own cheeses and salami or hard meats.

-Mark, Registered Dietician & Certified Diabetes Educator, Harbor View Endocrinology

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My parents were in a terrible car accident driving down to Long Island from Syracuse on my son’s fifth birthday about 25 years ago. My father was killed, and my mother was hospitalized. About two years later, my mother met Cliff while exercising with her friends. Cliff and mom got married, and he became my step dad.

Cliff was a jack of all trades and could fix anything. One day he brought me down to their cellar and showed me his 1948 Indian Chief motorcycle. It was in storage and disrepair. There were boxes of spare parts all around. Cliff told me he was going to restore it back to its original condition. He used to ride the bike in the 60s and, even then, people marveled at it.

Cliff and my mom have since both passed away. Cliff died about 3 years ago. I went up to Syracuse with a trailer in April of 2015, and we had to have four guys push the bike up the stairs from the basement up to the garage. Cliff had about six boxes of parts that all had to be restored and painted. I decided after 40+ years of the bike being in the basement, I would restore it.

The bike was at a specialty shop in New Jersey for a year. It started right up after being in the basement all that time. I had to learn how to ride this bike because it has a “suicide shifter” where you have to take one hand off the handle bars to shift gears, a clutch that is operated by your feet, and a spark arrester to adjust the timing. The throttle and the brake are on the opposite side of a Harley or traditional bike.

(Mather Hospital President) Ken Roberts and I took the three-day motorcycle safety course together and now I have my motorcycle license. The “48 Indian” engine will be restored this winter at a shop on Long Island. It is in original condition and will be back on the road this spring, still turning heads as I motor by!

-Kevin, Administration
#humansofmatherhospital #indianchiefmotorcycle #motorcycles

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I started working every day after high school in an elementary school library in Copiague, which had been torn apart by kids all day long. I had to put it back together every single day. That’s when I knew that working in a library was something that I enjoyed. My family moved to Wading River in 1986 and I went to work part time in the Shoreham-Wading River Public Library, which is now called North Shore. I met my husband there. I would serve him as a librarian. The first time he went there he saw me and he said to one of the other librarians who he was friends with, “Who’s the bombshell?” So he did notice. He would come in and I would get flustered and run off, saying “I’m going on my break.” He had a screen-printing business at the time. This was ‘93-94. Sometimes he would be working on a design and he would need clip art, so he was coming in looking for artwork and images that he could use to develop logos and other artwork for his business.

My husband was in a 12-piece R&B band so I used to show up wherever they were playing. It progressed to the point where I told him I had a crush on him. He was eight years older so I figured he would pat me on the head and say, “That’s cute, kid” but he said, “I feel the same way.”

We will be married 22 years in February. At our wedding they played this Jimmy Buffet song, “Love in the Library.”

-Debra, Mather Board Member; Director, Comsewogue Public Library.
#humansofmatherhospital #libraries #librarians

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The winter holidays are my favorite time of year. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas because no matter what, we always make time for family. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to Mr. Bills Cheesecakes with my dad to pick up cheesecakes. We distribute them to all of our neighbors. We try to visit with each one of them to wish them a happy holiday and a blessed new year. We’ve been in the same neighborhood for many years and community is important to us. We always make sure to get one or two cheesecakes for our house, too. On Christmas morning, after we open our gifts, all of us have a slice of cheesecake for breakfast together. My dad started the tradition because he shows his love through food. He’s the cook of the house and can appreciate a good desert. If he can share that happiness with others it makes him happy and we love to see him happy.

-Amanda, Public Affairs
#Cheesecake #Christmas #familytraditions

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She’s going to be 93 and she’s always loved Christmas. White Post Farms in Melville had free pictures with Santa and I was going to take her there. Then she got a pain in her head, so I brought her to the emergency room. The pain in her head turned out to be fine but they kept her here because she has very low sodium. I called to find out if the hospital had a Santa coming. I thought he could stop by and visit her. She’s a very Christmas type of person. She was very surprised when Santa walked in. She loves stuffed animals, so when he gave her one that was perfect.

I retired early to take care of her. I wanted her to have some good final years. The last two years I’ve been taking her all over the Island. She loves animals, so I take her to White Post Farms. She loves the Long Island Game Farm. She feeds Gerard the giraffe. She loves going to the Atlantis Aquarium in Riverhead to feed the stingrays.

-Robert, son of patient Joan

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My grandfather taught me how to paint. He got his start in design at Pratt University, first as a student, and then as a teacher. He then went on to be a set designer and set director for Jones Beach Theater. He took me to see so many shows at the theater when I was a little girl. “The Sound of Music” and “The King and I” had beautiful set designs. But my fondest memories of my grandfather were the times he invited me over to his studio to paint scenes from Disney books. After we sketched them out he painted those scenes in large scale on my bedroom walls. My favorites were “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio.” Now I have all of his original paintings hanging in my home. It was because of him I pursued an art degree and have been working in art and design for many years. I’ve come a long way from drawing Disney princesses but I still have those vivid memories of him and me painting the pictures I still love today.

-Michele Daniels, Harbor View Medical Services
#jonesbeachtheater #disney #art #painting

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I was in my early 20s, Kennedy was president and Vietnam was happening. I graduated nursing school in 1966 and I was working at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in Manhattan. I decided to apply to the Peace Corps. President Kennedy had challenged us to change the world.

I wanted to go to India but I got a call saying they had discontinued the nursing program in India and they were starting up a program in Ethiopia and needed another nurse. I called my dad and he said don’t panic we’ll get a map and figure out where Ethiopia is.

When I got to Ethiopia I lived in a mud hut with paper walls and a metal roof. I worked in a local hospital teaching nursing students.

Another Peace Corp volunteer took me to an orphanage for disabled children and that’s where I met Berhane Daba. She had polio and she was curled up in a fetal position and the only way she could get around was by using two wooden blocks in her hands to drag herself around on the ground. I tried to stretch her arms and legs but she was just so bent up so tight I couldn’t. A doctor was able to perform surgery on her and he stretched out her arms and legs and straightened out her back. They put her in a body cast. The orphanage wouldn’t take her back because they couldn’t take care of her, so I brought her home. She stayed with me the rest of my time in Ethiopia. When I left after 18 months, I made sure she was enrolled in school and was in a home for orphan girls. I kept in close contact with her all these years, writing all the time.

Berhane graduated high school and we sent her to the local college. She didn’t think she would be able to work because in her culture at that time if you were disabled you begged on the streets. I told her she would never do that. She went for a job and they turned her down because she was on crutches and wore braces. But she got a job with the National Library of Ethiopia. She worked there for 19 years and worked her way up to senior data analyst. Then she decided to create an organization for Ethiopian women with disabilities. Now it has over 3,000 people and she’s opened offices in Rwanda, Uganda and other countries.

I met her again in 2012 when they sent former Peace Corps volunteers back to Africa to mark the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. It was a very emotional meeting. We met up again in Berkeley, California in 2015 when she received a global citizen award from the Peace Corps. In September, she flew to Ottawa to meet with a professor and I drove there to meet her. I had no clue this would ever happen to me when I joined the Peace Corps. She’s like a daughter to me. I am very, very proud of her.

-Mary, Women for Health Group Member

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I just got married in September. When I got engaged my husband proposed to me in the front yard of his house on December 21. I didn’t notice it at the time, but he and his brother went up on the roof of the house and wrote out “Will you Marry Me?” in Christmas lights. He had the lights set on a remote so when we pulled up in the car the lights were out. We got out of the car, he hit the remote and I guess I didn’t see it. He asked me to marry him on the front lawn and I said yes. After I said yes was when I noticed the roof all lit up in Christmas lights.

-April, Nursing Professional Development
#humansofmatherhospital #christmaslights #holidayproposal

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Many people don’t know that I was a Captain in the Air Force. I was stationed at Lackland AFB (Texas) and I was a Flight Nurse at McGuire in New Jersey as well.
One day I was asked to be President Ronald Reagan’s nurse when he flew to San Antonio, TX. I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody that he was flying in the next day. A Military Police officer guarded me for the entire day in the operating room lounge, where I needed to stay should the President have a medical emergency. The Military Police officer and I stayed in the lounge until President Reagan’s plane took off and left the San Antonio air space. I never got to meet President Reagan but I was very proud of that honor. When I told my dad, who was a former Marine, he was so emotional because I was the only one out of my nine brothers and sisters to be in the military.

– Mary Jane, Quality Assurance/Patient Advocate

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I am a Batman fanatic. I personally like Ben Affleck as Batman in the movies. When you look at the actual character of Batman and what he’s supposed to represent, Affleck fits the mold. Christian Bale also did a great job. He would probably be my second favorite. But the grittiness, the rawness of the character, that’s Affleck. He’s a good guy but he’s struggling; he’s on the edge.
There are enough hardships in life as it is. It’s good to have some fantasy in life.
Batman doesn’t have real super powers, so everything he does is self-made. He’s smart. He’s physically strong. He’s supposed be the greatest detective. He’s a problem solver. I see a lot of that in what I do day-to-day. I’m not as strong but I like tinkering. I’m not destroying actual enemies, but pathology is an enemy. I look at it as what can I do to be this patient’s hero?

-Mohammad Bilal, MD, Interventional Radiology

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This is the second year my wife and I are walking in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as balloon handlers. My uncle works for Macy’s and he’s been doing it since he started working there. I knew my uncle had been doing this for a few years when he asked us if we wanted to. When someone asks you if you want to do something like this, how do you say no? I was like, “Umm, yeah!”. It’s such a bucket list item.

There is a lot of training involved. You learn hand and whistle signals that are used to communicate how to move the balloon. There’s anywhere from 40-50 and up to 100 people per balloon and your movements have to be coordinated together for raising or lowering the balloon, or the speed that you’re moving. Some of these balloons are so big that they barely fit down the city streets. It’s tricky, especially when you catch some wind at street intersections. Even with a bunch of people holding on to these balloons, it takes a lot of effort.

This year we’re on the Skylander Eruptor balloon. It’s a giant orange thing. It’s such a fun, stress-free day. How could it be bad when you’re walking in the parade?!

-Scott, Mather Primary Care
#humansofmatherhospital #macysthanksgivingdayparade #happythanksgiving

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My greatest accomplishment has been raising five children to fruition as a single mom. My greatest desire is that as I have launched them, they will continue to make a difference in the world.

My oldest daughter has four children and she is a cross culture communicator in Kenya, Africa. Four years ago when she had a newborn, she was hijacked in Kenya after leaving a safari with her supervisor and his wife and children. Men from a terrorist organization were watching them thinking they were tourists, but they weren’t, they were missionaries. These men came with guns took over the car and demanded money. Because they were missionaries, they could only give $300. The baby miraculously slept the whole time and by the time it was dark, they had gotten to their leader, he opened the door and when the light hit the newborn, those men got in trouble. The leader said, “Why would you hijack a car with a baby?” The leader took over the car and drove to an ATM where he had my daughter’s supervisor give him $300 dollars. The captors finally let them go. Normally in those scenarios, they could have been left in a remote area, never to be seen again.

Every 2½ years she comes home to America and we have a good time when she’s here. I’m just so proud of each one of my children, because each has so much potential to be humans that go out and make a difference.

-Bernadette, 3 North

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I used to go to Saratoga for the Jazz Fest with my sister every year. One time we stopped to check out a little antique shop. I instantly found an interest in vintage holiday decor. From there our hobby evolved. We traveled all over. It’s all about the hunt. My sister has a good eye and can always find treasures that I’d love. We have our own little competition between us. Part of the fun is haggling for a better deal. One of my interesting finds include Putz houses. I believe they originated in Germany. They’re tricky to find because they don’t hold up well since they’re made out paper.

I’ve passed my passion onto my two daughters. Now we all look for collectibles for each other. The farthest I’ve traveled to a market was to London. They have amazing little markets. I found this absolutely gorgeous set of flatware, neatly packaged in a box. But I wasn’t quite sure of the exchange rate. I told myself, “Yeah, maybe tomorrow we’ll come back and get them”, not knowing that that market wouldn’t be there the next day. So my girls and sister still say to this day “It’s like London all over again” when any of us miss an opportunity.

-Mary Sundquist, RN, Hyperbarics

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On October 23, 1983, I was in the Navy assigned to the Marines with the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit in Beirut, Lebanon. On that date at 6:25 am a truck bomb blew up our Marine Corps barracks. If you look at the pictures from that time, people have said that the closest thing you can compare the images of that building falling in Lebanon to was the Twin Towers.

When I sit in my office and people tell me they’re having a bad day, I reference back to these experiences. I would never wish for anyone to go through that or see what I and my fellow Marines and Sailors saw. I was only 24 at the time. But, no matter how bad it is here, it’s a lot worse in other areas of the world. We have a lot to be thankful for here.

-Phil, Nursing Emergency Services
#humansofmatherhospital #veteransday #navy

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I like to go on adventures. I go hiking and fishing. In May I went to Zion National Park in Utah with one of my friends. We went on the Trans-Zion Trek which is about 48 miles. We did it in five days and every night we set up camp along the trail. The longest day we hiked was 16 miles and it was really tough because we went up and down 3,000 feet of elevation. We saw a few people in the beginning of the trek but once you get up towards the top of the mountain, it gets pretty desolate.

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My favorite thing to do is watch movies with my family. We all get together, make popcorn and laugh, and have a good time. It makes me happy. I am proud of my family. We are a strong unit. We are about tradition and family time. Sometimes my husband and I can’t believe the three amazing children we have raised. Like all families we have our challenges. Shortly after my husband was diagnosed with cancer my little guy was diagnosed with a bone disease. Matthew has been through a lot in his 11 years of life, but he is so determined and brings a smile to the faces of all that meet him. We call him our little man because he is so witty and funny. With family we know that at the end of the day we will always be there for each other no matter what.

-Kimberly, Radiology Residency Program
#humansofmatherhospital #movies #familytime #tradition

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A few years ago we moved into a new office. We had new tabletops, chairs, everything built into the new space for the employees. We had spent the budget on the employees’ furniture, so I couldn’t get the table I wanted for my office.

At home I had an old oak kitchen set that seats eight people. I brought in the table and three of the chairs and I had my computer chair and another rolling chair and it turned into a meeting table. All my meetings are easier, whether it’s evaluations with staff or seeing patients and families.

Everyone likes it. They walk in here and order breakfast or they ask, “Where’s the coffee machine?”

-Ted, Respiratory Therapy
#humansofmatherhospital

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From a young age I knew I wanted to entertain people. In college, I was the campus DJ. I went on to work for many Long Island radio stations. I’ve been making pizza since I was eight years old and I owned a pizzeria in Miller Place when my wife suggested we do a comedy show to entertain our guests. Guess who the comedian was? Me. I loved it. Making pizza and making people laugh are my two favorite things. I realized I wanted to be in front of an audience again.

Now I perform 20 times per month and I do shows for different charities – mostly for breast cancer charities. My mom is a survivor and I do it for her. I also like to give back to the community and if I can make people laugh, my job is done.

-John, Environmental Services

#aragonascomedy #pizza #breastcancerawareness #paintportpink

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M- We met here at Mather in 1981 and are happily married for 31 years. Ralph’s mother was a nursing assistant who I had worked with a few times when I first started in the hospital.
R- My mom kept telling me she knew a nice girl, who was a nurse, that she wanted me to meet but at the time I wasn’t interested in being set up.
M- A few months later Ralph’s father became a patient in the hospital and I was his nurse. That was the first time I met Ralph, and he asked me out soon after. I didn’t realize who his mother was until he took me home to meet his family.
R- I was shocked to find out that Marion was the girl my mother wanted me to meet this whole time.
M- I guess when things are meant to be, they just have a way of happening.
-Marion & Ralph, Nursing

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I was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago. This was my first vacation after I had done chemo and I had my bald head and reconstructed body. This picture was taken right outside our hotel room in Ocean City, MD. The lights had just come on and it was just breathtaking to me. I was coming out of a dark time and seeing the light.

-Diane, 2 North
#humansofmatherhospital #breastcancerawareness #breastcancer

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We have family in Germany who we stayed with for a week during Easter. They didn’t speak English. Their stepdaughter was able to translate. We got to experience Germany culturally staying with family. They have a shooting range where you go to shoot pellet guns and you have to shoot the targets to determine how many Easter eggs you get. Sixty was the most you could get, and we brought back 49. It was an Easter tradition. On Easter eve they light a fire outside of the church and throw palms in. It was cool because our cousin was the fire chief and he was in charge of it.

It was an off-the-beaten-path German town. Everyone wanted to meet the Americans. Everyone wanted to meet us.

-Lindsay, Medical Affairs
#humansofmatherhospital #germany #easter

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When I was in high school, I had trouble in my classes and a lot of my teachers talked down to me and made me feel like I wasn’t going to be successful. I ended up going to Suffolk Community College for three years to get my associate’s degree and then I went to Stony Brook and got my bachelor’s degree in health science and healthcare informatics.

That was the best day of my life when I graduated from Stony Brook because I proved to everybody at my high school that I could do anything. I felt that getting into Stony Brook was my best accomplishment. It wasn’t easy and it was a lot of work to maintain my grades. I would cry on days when I had to take tests and I would stay up all night until 3 am studying for tests and finals. It was a lot of work. Now I’m taking graduate classes there.

– Katelyn, Medical Affairs

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I’ve been baking all my life. My mother was a cook and a baker and I’m a cook and a baker. That’s what I enjoy doing – cookies, pound cakes cheesecakes. My specialty is my cream cheese pound cake. I bake for everybody. Every place I go, they expect me to bring my homemade baking. When I go to lunch with my friends they know that I bring the desserts. My grandsons live up in the Bronx and when they come I send them home loaded with food. They call me for recipes.

On Secretaries Day, I brought cookies to the secretaries I deliver mail to in the hospital. My daughter works on 3 North, so I deliver cookies for the girls. I bring cookies for the people at the reception desk. In Nursing Administration, you mention my name and they’ll tell you what their favorite cookies are that I make.

#humansofmatherhospital

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I’ve been engaged for 17 years. Seventeen years ago, three months after we met, Lai-Kuan proposed and I said yes without hesitation. With that, life started unfolding however God had it to be.

First, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ultimately, my mom passed and I had to take custody of my niece, who my mom had been raising. I had a daughter of my own who was 12 and my niece was 12, so I stepped in. I also gave birth to twin boys who did not make it. We got through that still living and loving. Years later my godchildren, twin baby boys, were in a bad situation and I got a call that they were going to be placed in foster care. I was able to get full custody. They’re now eight years old. They’re still with us and they’re happy, they’re thriving.

My niece is now 27 years old. She has her own family and she’s doing very well. My daughter is 27 and she’s a new mom and a nurse.

Fast forward to 2016. I can say I’m getting married, finally. There’s a time for everything. There’s a purpose in all things. Looking back on all these years, it’s the compassion that outweighed everything. It leads to love. Love is unyielding. Love never fails. People say you should have been married years ago. This is our time now. We’ve given so much to others and we put ourselves aside and I believe this is the perfect time.

I’m getting married on October 8 and my theme is ‘A Season of Change.’

– Winnifer, Health Information Management

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I pole vaulted in high school and for two years in college. I’ve used PVC pipes before, and one year my mom got me a hockey net for Christmas and I took it apart and made the frame into a pole. I would pole vault with it on to my trampoline instead of a mat. I went to Oneonta College and I hold the pole vaulting record there. My record is 13 feet 9 Inches. I’ve jumped with some really amazing people like Jenn Suhr, who won gold in pole vaulting at the 2012 Olympics. I miss it a lot.

-Nick, Information Services
#humansofmatherhospital #polevault #2012summerolympics

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I met a girl in 2010 that had done St. Baldrick’s, a program in which you shave your head to show support and donate your hair to those in need, while raising funds for children with childhood cancers. Prior to that I had never met a female that had done it and it inspired me. Last year I decided that I need to do it. When I would go out to stores I could tell that people were looking at me differently because they didn’t quite know how to take it. Was it a fashion statement? Is she ill? A lot of people thought I was sick.

It’s definitely an emotional experience not having hair. But to me it’s just hair. The grow-out is horrendous, though. I donated 26 inches. Maybe in five years I’ll decide to do it again.

-Alisha, Food and Nutritional Services
#humansofmatherhospital #stbaldricks

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I go scuba diving in the Hamptons. There is a bridge you can scuba dive under and you see all this aquatic life. It’s really cool. I’m actually trying to become a master scuba diver. It’s pretty scary, anything can happen. One of our skills was to let go of our breather and try to grab it and I lost it when I let go. It was right in front of me but I just couldn’t feel it. You get scared and you lose yourself for a second.

-Kevin, Laboratory
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#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎scubadiving‬

 

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I’m 23 years old. I just got certified as a personal trainer and I’m passionate about helping people become the best version of themselves. After I’m finished training someone, I want them to feel how I feel after I attend a Bikram Yoga class. The room is 110 degrees and 30 percent humidity and it’s so hard the whole time. Afterwards, this feeling of accomplishment comes over you and the 60 minutes of sweat was so worth it.

-Kelsey, Bariatrics.
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#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎personaltrainer‬ ‪#‎bikramyoga‬

 

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I just got back from a medical mission to Peru. I am part of a group called “A Promise to Peru” that provides medical care and cataract surgery there. The group is comprised of medical students, primary and specialty physicians, RNs, NPs, and ophthalmologists who all donate their money and time to participate.

This year we set up an improvised medical clinic in an isolated rural town called Calca. We saw more than 1,300 patients and performed 50 surgeries. We also dispensed close to 1,600 pairs of distance, reading and non-prescription sunglasses.

This requires a lot money, so once or twice a year we hold fundraisers to be able to purchase necessary equipment and medications. We all pay our own airline tickets, meals, and hotel for the opportunity to help people who would otherwise never get treatment. It’s very life changing for people in Peru. Some of them don’t have electricity or running water. And there’s very little access to medical care.

As a doctor and as a human being, I believe we all have a responsibility to do as much good as we can for those who need help, wherever they may be. This mission gives me the opportunity to do what I believe is the greatest good with the skill set that I have. I get a sense of pride and satisfaction that I truly made someone’s life better.

-Joseph, Chief Medical Information Officer, Intensivist

#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎apromisetoperu‬

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I was driving on 25A in Calverton and saw a confused baby deer walking into oncoming traffic. Cars were whizzing by without a care. I pulled over, and with the assistance of a nice woman and a firefighter who stopped because they saw me in the middle of the road, I managed to guide the little deer to the side of the road. His eyes were covered with ticks, which explained why he was walking into traffic. My Great Dane Tank was in the back seat of my car. I grabbed the blanket he was resting on and wrapped it around the baby deer. We took him to the closest veterinarian in Wading River, Dr. Scott Dubato. The vet told me the baby deer must have lost his mother because a mother deer cleans off ticks from their babies and this little guy was completely blind. It pained me to see him in distress, but I was glad I could help him out. I feel every life matters.
-Cindy, Public Affairs

#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪

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I did karate for 14 years. I’m a first-degree black belt. I started when I was 4. I was a big fan of Bruce Lee when I was a little kid. My dad and I always used to watch his movies. I needed something extracurricular, so (my parents) put me into karate first before basketball and baseball. I was in a couple of tournaments when I was little. I taught some classes. I stopped when I graduated high school because I wanted to concentrate on my studies.

Karate taught me a lot of the principles I still use today, like discipline and perseverance.

-Karthik, volunteer

#‎thekaratekid‬ ‪#‎brucelee‬ ‪#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪

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It’s special that my daughter got to have her graduation with her father. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but we hope for the best. This was a very emotional thing for me. I love that I got to be with her. It’s about love, compassion and family. How do you top this?

For the nurses at Mather to go above and beyond is incredible. I didn’t expect this. Ever since I’ve been here the nurses have been gracious and they do things out of compassion. They care for their patients.

-Carlos, patient
‪#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎classof2016‬ ‪#‎graduation‬ ‪#‎comsewogue‬ ‪#‎magnetnurses‬

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This was very special because my dad couldn’t come to my high school graduation on June 23. It was very special that the principal came here to do this for me.

-Danielle, daughter of Mather patient
‪#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎classof2016‬ ‪#‎graduation‬ ‪#‎comsewogue‬ ‪#‎magnetnurses‬

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When I was a little girl there were three things I dreamt of being – Miss America; a surgeon, like my dad; and president.

In 2014 I became president of the Medical Society of Suffolk County and I felt the Society was representing my profession as a surgeon here in the community.

For the Miss America part…actually the closest I got to being Miss America was in 1981 when I was first runner-up for the Fourth of July Miss Wantagh contest. I was in 10th grade and I had my first photo op with local and State legislators. The girl who actually won Miss Wantagh is now a Bay Shore cardiologist and is also a member of the Medical Society.

-Maria, MD, AVP for Medical Affairs
‪#humansofmatherhospital #‎missamerica‬ ‪#‎medicalsociety‬

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I’ve been DJ-ing for 20 years. I’ve had my own company for 15 years. I DJ-ed for a lot of big DJ companies in the city and on Long Island prior to having my own company. I did my first wedding at 18. I love music. I’ve always listened to music. As a child I tried to DJ with cassette decks when I didn’t have turntables. I received my first set of turntables at 14 years old. A good friend of my brother was a local DJ and I used to just sit next to him at house parties and watch him, just fascinated by him.

I love making people dance. When you love music and you mix music and you have people on the dance floor and they yell and scream, it’s just like a natural high. It’s the best feeling and you just keep looking for more of it.
-Donny, Interventional Radiology
‪#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎DJDonnyQ‬ ‪#‎music‬ ‪#‎turntables‬

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My humans, Mac and Mary have been attending Mather’s Families Walk & Run for Hope for 11 years. I’ve been walking with them for the past three years in support of Mary who is a breast cancer survivor. It’s a wonderful day to celebrate and I enjoy all the people who stop to talk to me out on the walk. I’ve been competing in the Pink Your Pooch contest since it started three years ago and this year I won! I’m so excited because I love getting dressed up in pink. It’s my favorite color. Since I won the contest this year I get to enjoy a basket of treats as my prize … I hope there are some yummy bones and chew toys to play with!
-Daisy, Pink Your Pooch Winner

‪#‎nonhumansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎humansofmatherhospital‬ ‪#‎breastcancerwalk‬

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On May 14, 1976, the day before my wedding, my father William P. Strauch, Jr. was in a serious car accident one block from our home in Sound Beach. He was taken by ambulance to Mather Hospital. When my mother and I arrived at the hospital, we were told my dad had broken ribs and a punctured lung. I, along with my entire family, was heartbroken. We were filled with worry over my dad’s health but my biggest heartbreak was when I came to the realization that he’d miss my wedding the following day.

In memory of Gert Wilks, one of our first Humans of Mather profiles. Gert passed away on Friday. We will miss her.

I’ve been volunteering at Mather for 27 years. Can’t sit home every day. I come only one day a week because I don’t have a car. I take the bus here. People say, “You spend $8 to volunteer?” But I have friends here. And we laugh! We’re professional, but we have a good time.

-Gert, Volunteer
#humansofmatherhospital

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I go to the Families Walk & Run for Hope every year. One of my best friends is a breast cancer survivor and I go every year to the Fortunato Breast Health Center. I was there this year with my friend Millie. It’s just a nice thing to give support for people for a good cause. I’m happy with the Fortunato Breast Health Center and with Mather Hospital.

It’s nice to take the dog with us. I entered him in the Pink Your Pooch contest. My mother made him his little shirt with the breast cancer ribbon on the back.

-Ellen, Families Walk & Run for Hope participant
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My mom was here for a month and the care and compassion and respect that the nursing staff showed mom was phenomenal. It really touched my brother and me in a way that we wanted to do something special to recognize the nurses, so they understand how appreciated they are by the families.

Particularly with the nurses on 3 North, day in and day out they had a vested interest in mom getting better. They took care of her. And they cared for her. They understood that it was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for the entire family. They took the time to be compassionate with the family as well. When you’re here for a month and every interaction is phenomenal, it inspires you to do something. So we made a donation to underwrite the celebrations for Nurses Week.

Mom was happy here. She was comfortable here. She really appreciated everything (the staff) did. We just wanted to do a little something to pay that back.

-Gerry, patient’s son
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Several of us at Mather would share photos we took now and then. We said we ought to start a photography club. I went to the Port Jefferson Library and met with the head of Reference and said we wanted to start photography club. He said I’ve been trying to get a photography club in this library for years. We’ve been in existence for three years and have 25 members. One of our mentors is a professional photographer. It’s an opportunity to be among people of like minds so you’re enthusiastic about making the most of photo opportunities. Also it’s having an opportunity to share photography with other people as an art form.

For years I was a 35mm hold out. Then my children bought me my first digital camera. I’m not savvy at all with computers. I have someone, who is a great photographer, tutoring me. Since I’ve been in the photo club, I don’t leave the house without a camera.

-John, Storeroom

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My first job was at an adolescent therapeutic center supervising and teaching kids. A co-worker there suggested I go into social work. He thought I’d be good at it. At first I went for a dual degree of social work and law. As I completed each course I knew my calling, I decided to focus only on social work.

My first day at my internship was on the Cardiac Care Unit and my patient was dying. It was a great learning experience for me because I got to watch the (supervising) social worker talk to the patient and his family in a way I never knew. Joan, my supervisor at the time, interacted with the patient’s wife during this difficult time in a way that made me want to be a social worker even more. It’s a job that makes you self- reflect. One of the great things is I now teach social work students and I always remember my first day on the job.

-Rich, Social Work
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My family and I are very close. With our busy schedules we don’t see each other as often as we would like. If I won the Powerball I would pay off everyone’s debt. Then I’d buy a large strip of land and build a house on it for each of us. When I was younger my whole extended family lived on the same block. It was so fun because we saw our cousins every day. I just recently got engaged and eventually I want to have children. I want them to have the same family experiences I had growing up.

-Ashley, Pharmacy

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I’m a financial planner by day but my true passion is woodworking. I was walking on the beach one day and I saw a beat up piece of driftwood in the sand. It had a large knot toward the top of the piece and I immediately thought of a whale’s eye. I took home the wood, got out an old hand saw and started cutting. I brought the finished piece to work and my co-workers started placing orders. I’ve been creating wood pieces for a few years now. I just love it. I only use wood that is discarded or from trees that were removed because of disease or because of dangerous hanging limbs.

-Karlyn, Fundraising Volunteer
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I have a photo exhibit in Mattituck at the library on May 1. I try to do 3-4 exhibits a year when the libraries can fit me in. I’m going to show pictures of scenery and flowers. I got started taking pictures when I was 18 with my 35 mm, black and white. And then I had one of those Instamatics. I went to Farmingdale College and I took pictures for the newspaper and I developed them. I want to set up a darkroom. I still have all the equipment. I have an enlarger. I still use film. I use digital also, but I kind of miss the old 35 mm film cameras.
I love the stories behind the pictures. I took a photo of an old barn and it had so much history to it – how far back it went, who owned it. And it later collapsed and now it’s gone. I like to go out to Montauk Point and wait for the sun to come up. I like flowers and I like doing fashion sometimes. My nieces love to get dressed up and have me take pictures of them.
-Sylvan, Food and Nutritional Services
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Back in 1978 after I graduated from high school I traveled around the world for a couple of months. Pan Am had a one-way ticket that was good for a year and you had to just keep moving forward. We went standby so we never knew where we were going to end up– just a backpack on our backs, me and a co-worker whose husband was an employee of Pan Am. If the plane was full we would say, ‘Okay, what’s the next plane out?’ and we’d end up going to a different country than we had originally planned. We went to San Francisco and then to Japan; Hong Kong; Singapore; Bangkok, Thailand; India; Karachi, Pakistan; England and back to New York. We were gone almost two months. I scared my parents because we didn’t have cell phones (back then). They never heard from me once throughout the whole trip because all my postcards arrived after I got home.
-Lynn, Laboratory

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I’m very proud of my son, Nicholas.He just graduated from the New York City Police Academy two weeks ago and got into a really great precinct – the 109th in Flushing, Queens. All my family was there to see him at the graduation. That was an exciting experience for all of us.

Being a single parent I’ve had the most supportive family helping me through things. They were awesome. Thank God I was able to keep my house and raise my three boys in that house and see them all graduate from high school. They’re all doing very well.
— Alice, 2 East

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The last two years have been a journey of sorts for me. I’ve found peace in my life. I’m very passionate about yoga. At first I started it because a friend of mine suggested that it would relax me. But now it’s who I am. It’s become a part of my day 5 times a week. I’ve strengthened my body, my mind and my soul. I’m not as stressed as I used to be. The little things don’t bother me as much and the aches and pains that I used to have are gone. It’s helped my marriage …. 25 years together. I’m a better mother for my children too. And my body is toned and strong. I am happy.
-Nicole, Materials Management

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I’ve always been an animal person my whole life. One of my big things was rabbits. Somehow I always manage to have them.

One day my aunt brought an injured cottontail home. She said I don’t know what to do with this thing. I did a lot of research. I stayed up 48 hours straight taking care of a wild rabbit waiting for the closest wildlife rescue in East Hampton to open. I drove out there and they told me I did an excellent job taking care of it. I decided I wanted to keep that going.

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My wife and I are married 30 years this September. We may go back to Italy – we’ve been there once but never got to Florence. My wife wants to see the Amalfi coast and explore. And, she’s looking at things in China. We are trying to do some traveling now that the kids are getting older and we have some more time. We’ve traveled a lot with the children, taking them out of school sometimes because we feel it’s good to travel, to see things. We went to Pearl Harbor and we showed them the history there. They’ve been to Spain to experience the history there. Granted the kids aren’t big on the museums but my wife loves it. I’m okay with it.
–Dan, Engineering

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I met my husband when I was 15. The first day I met him I told my father that I was going to marry him, I just knew. We had a 5 year courtship and now we’ve been married 41 years. We have been blessed with three children, four grandchildren and twins on the way! We are thrilled and looking forward to a very busy summer with all the children. We like to take them to Rocket Ship Park in Port Jefferson and go to the New York State Fair. They all have their own special personalities and they always make us smile. I love when they call us Nonna and Pa. They make our lives complete.
-Phyllis, Design & Construction

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My wife and I adopted two kids. We got a phone call and they asked us if we had room to take in a brother and a sister and we had an hour and a half notice, and we took them. They wanted an immediate adoptive family. We had to make up our minds because the judge didn’t want to separate the children. They were in a bad situation in foster care.

They said you need to get a couple of rooms ready to look like a boy’s room and a girl’s room. We had a weight room and an office, and they were turned into a boy’s room and a girl’s room in 4 days – painted, furnished, bedding. Within a week they were living with us.

It’s been amazing. It’s been the best part of my life. It’s been the best year of my life. They came to us at 4 and 8 and they’re now 5 and 9. They’ve been with us about 14 months. I love it. I love everything about being a parent. It’s been eye-opening. It’s unconditional love. From day one they called us mom and dad. I consider myself a very lucky man.
– John, Engineering Services
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I’m always at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. I’ve walked with the parade 20-something years. I belong to the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians in Selden and we marched as a group. Many, many people march in that parade and we walked proudly. It’s like no other feeling walking down Fifth Avenue from one end to the other, people cheering you on and just knowing you’re part of the biggest organization in the world – the Irish! It’s in my heart. I just recently stopped walking and now I’m just going in to enjoy it. I’m 80 years old and I figured it’s time. When you march in the parade you don’t see it. You don’t see all the other groups marching cause you’re too busy marching yourself.
-Ginger, Telecommunications
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This is a big year for me. I will celebrate 25 years at Mather and my 25th wedding anniversary. Our family has gone through a lot of changes over the years. We are empty nesters now. The girls are both away at college. At first it was difficult. But now my husband and I really enjoy it. We spend a lot of time together going to concerts, eating out and seeing friends. We see my sister and her husband all the time. We visit the kids as much as possible and love it when they’re home but we really enjoy being alone too. This year will be a good year.
-Luisa, Pharmacy

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We’re moving soon. We just wanted to get a condo instead of a house at this point, because we’re downsizing. I’m done with mowing lawn, raking leaves, shoveling and everything else. We’ve been in our house 17 years, but I’m feeling good about leaving. I won’t miss it, not at all. It was good when the kids were going to school, but it’s time to move on. We used to move a lot, every couple of years before we had kids. We’d buy a house, fix it up and make some money. This is our fifth and I think we will do well. We do a lot of it ourselves. It’s time consuming but it’s worth it.
-Betty Ann, Finance

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I’m a senior in high school and I was accepted by the University of Tampa as an education major. But, Mather changed my mind about becoming a teacher. I met many people as I volunteered here and on the floors and talked to different nurses. I’ve changed my major to nursing. I want to work in a hospital as a nurse, maybe in pediatrics because I really want to help make people feel better.
-Ashley, Jr. Volunteer

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I’m so proud of my sons. My 28 year old now works here at Mather, right down the hallway from me. It’s so nice to see him in a professional capacity every day. My 21 year old is a senior at Berklee College of Music studying Film Scoring. As a kid he overcame many anxieties and now he’s blossomed into this creative independent man with a promising career ahead of him. As a mom, I couldn’t be prouder of the men they have become.
-Debbie, Compliance Dept.

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There was a patient who used to come in all the time and he liked chocolate-covered cherries. He said he used to eat them with his son. When he was here, I’d ask the nurses if he was fasting or had any dietary restrictions. If they said no, I’d get chocolates for him, bring the paper with his lotto numbers and talk to him about the Jets. I’m always trying to lighten the mood because people get frustrated and they don’t want to be here. I just try to make it a little bit easier.
-Casey, Patient Access

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In truth, this is where my mind is – on filling out this application for a fellowship [with the New York City Board of Education]. I’m thinking about becoming a teacher, either science or math. I have a bachelor’s in biology. It’s a 6-month program and you learn all the ins and outs of being in the classroom and then student teach usually at an underperforming school. I can get my master’s while getting paid. There are a couple of questions that I’m trying to figure out the best way to answer so they see I really do want to help the kids. You don’t want to make the mistake of making a wrong impression and then you can’t get the opportunity of a lifetime. The application is short answer questions where you are given a situation to see what you would do. I want them to give me the opportunity although sometimes what you see on paper isn’t necessarily how the person is.
-Mike, Environmental Services

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My dad was actually a third year med student in Viet Nam but he never had an opportunity to finish because of the lifecircumstances. Growing up around him, maybe he wanted me to go into the medical field because there were always science books in the house. He took me to visit his friends who were able to finish school and practice medicine around Saigon. I didn’t really decide until senior year of high school. Even in college, I wasn’t 100 percent all in. But then, going on medical mission trip, going to an autopsy. Yes, it sounds morbid to go to an autopsy, but it really does test you. And that’s when I knew.
-Minh, Internal Medicine Resident

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I just start singing with my patients and they sing with me and you can just see the smile on their faces. It’s a time of peace and joy for them. Sometimes it brings back good memories for them. It makes coping a lot easier. I think music is more powerful than we know. It helps healing on the inside and also on the outside. -Gospel, Nursing

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I didn’t want to work as soon as I graduated. I got my advanced master’s degree in one year and I wanted to be off for that summer. My professor said ‘just go for the interview at Mather Hospital, you would be good’ and so I did. I went home, thought I did the right thing by the professor and not that I got the job. Then I got a call asking if I could come in on Wednesday for orientation, and it was supposed to be part time. Before I knew it it was full time and then some! I never got the time off that I wanted. I’m still here 17 years later… I never ever thought I would be a social worker. Life just evolved and this is where I landed, and I’m very pleased. People would say if only I could be 20 again – I would not want to be 20 again for anything in the world, I’m happy right where I am today.

– Joan, Social Work

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In the last six months I’ve gotten married, found out we’re expecting our first child, a boy, looking to buy a house and came back to work at Mather. What worries me about becoming a parent is that I don’t want him to sit around and play video games. I want to instill the values and upbringing that I had and make sure my child is active and healthy. When I was growing up, you played in the street until the lights came on. You played outside. But, more than anything I want him to be happy.

– Marc, Instrument Processing

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This winter gave me the time to do my art work. I’m doing a lot of art journaling and I’m really enjoying that my art is going in a different direction. Art journaling is a whole new concept for me and it’s for me –not something I’d sell. It’s great because I just put the paint onto the paper and it takes me where I am meant to be in that moment. I’m using a lot of color, and just getting outside my comfort zone. I get lost in it, time-wise and that’s one of the really great things. Now I feel like I’m at a point in my life where I’m free to do that.

-Dawn, Mail Room

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I found out after I started working here that my family had a direct connection to John T. Mather. My parents discovered it through their genealogical research. My great great-grandfather, Osborne Ray, was a ship captain and he sailed the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built in Port Jefferson by Mather. The ship was the Martha E. Wallace and he ran it aground off the coast of North Carolina. The ship’s second mate mistook a lighthouse for a lightship and directed them closer to the shore where they got stuck. The crew was able to evacuate and salvage some of the cargo. I haven’t run anything as important as a boat full of cargo into the ground yet, so I’d like to think I’m making my ancestors proud! -Tim, Revenue Cycle

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Our first date was at a restaurant called Mario’s. Two years to the day later, at the same restaurant in the same booth, he asked me to marry him…We had our ceremony at a place called CalNeva, which was on the California and Nevada border. The pool, the hotel, the grounds were split between the two states. We got our marriage license in Nevada and were set to get married outside in the beautiful gazebo at the resort. That day, the wind was blowing very hard and they made us move the ceremony inside. We realized later that the room was on the California side. We’re still not sure we’re legally married.

-Miriam, Information Services

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I’ve been a Buffalo Bills fan since I was a kid. I’ve been a season ticket holder for 15 years. I’ve sat in the same section for 12. Buffalo is unique–big city with a small town feel. Sometimes I go to five games a year. My (seat) neighbor is a 72-year-old dairy farmer who probably is just finishing milking her cows as I’m talking to you. It’s amazing how close we are. We’ll touch base 8-9 times during the off season and then all season long. The games I don’t attend, we’ll talk on the phone on Monday morning.

– Rich, Security

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It was the Depression and we had no money. I was young and I was an introvert. I went to school in poor clothes so I hid from people, stayed quiet. Back then, I picked up every penny I saw because if you found a penny, I could buy candy. I’ve traveled to Hawaii, Mexico, Italy, Scotland, England, Alaska. But if I see a penny even now, I pick it up. I have a dish at home filled with pennies…

-Gert, Volunteer

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I’ve been a motorhead since I guess I was 14. I had been driving my father’s Falcon around. He would leave it at the Merillon Avenue train station with the keys in the ash tray. And I would take it and travel around. He didn’t know, not for a long time, until one day I couldn’t get back in to the parking space where he left it.

-Russ, Engineering Department

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The first song I learned to play on the piano was the McDonald’s jingle from the TV commercial. I learned to play that by ear. My greatest moment in music was when I played on the Go Go’s first album, “We Got The Beat.” I met Belinda Carlisle and the rest of the band and it was incredible. I probably would have chosen music full-time if I would have been willing to take the risk of living the life of a musician in the city not knowing where the next job was or paycheck would come from.

– Mike, Revenue Cycle

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