Mother and her two kids celebrate Mother's Day, National Nurses Week working at MD Anderson Hospital
HOUSTON - Mother's Day overlaps with National Nurse's Week and a local woman gets to celebrate both!
Two of Lucy Bujnoch's children work at the same hospital with her, making almost every day feel like Mother's Day for her.
She's a proud mother of 5 children and 11 grandchildren. She retired as an operating room nurse six years ago but went back there, only a few months later, to work part-time with two of her grown children. This a dream come true for her.
"It's been a perfect combination, working at MD Anderson, having a passion for caring for cancer patients, and to be with my kids, working at MD Anderson making cancer history. It's just the best job I've ever had in my life and it's so awesome to have two of my kids working with me in the operating room," says Lucy.
They all cherish working together. "It's fun! It's exciting and it's always nice to know most days, there's family close by if you if you're having a rough day or if you are you've had a really good day, and you want to tell someone you're excited. It's really nice having family here," states her son, Mike Gonzalez.
Woman's dream of becoming a nurse comes true 50 years later
They each have a different role at MD Anderson but work in the same department. Mike and Rebecca come by it naturally.
"For as long as I can remember when my mom would talk about medical stuff, she would use the correct terminology. So, I grew up hearing sciences, especially health science classes were always really easy for me because it felt familiar like a native language almost," says Mike. "I really enjoyed hearing stories about the operating room, especially growing up as a child. It always sounded to me like a magical place because it's so different than any other part of the hospital. So, for me growing up, I knew I wanted to do something in nursing," explains Rebecca.
She says her biggest problem with that dream was overcoming her fear of blood, something readily available in an operating room. However, her loving mom helped her work through the fear, and it is no longer an issue for her.
Rebecca got her first taste of nursing someone as a teenager, when their mom was diagnosed with melanoma and had to be treated at MD Anderson. She was a natural! This compassionate family knows what it's like to suffer cancer and as workers, they can have struggling days with concerns about their patients. That's when having each other nearby really makes a difference. Sometimes they can just act goofy to help lighten the emotional load.
"Sometimes it's more difficult to maybe speak to another friend or relative about how you feel about things are going on at work and I feel like that between Mike and Rebecca and I we are truly able to support each other and decompress when things are really difficult," states Lucy. She’s honored her children are following in her footsteps. "I can walk past a room, and I see that they're working, and they are very dedicated and very serious about their positions and taking care of patients and I just feel so, so proud ," reflects Lucy.
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They share loving words for their mom for Mother's Day.
"I can't express how much I love you and how much I appreciate everything that she's done for me and done for us. All of us, all her kids. She's incredible and she has always impressed me with her integrity, her love and caring, and her ability to grow and learn! My whole life, she has been growing and learning and becoming a better version of herself and is an excellent example to follow," says a beaming Mike. "I appreciate that she not only raised us and brought us up a certain way, but just be able to have as a co-worker, a mom, a friend, all those different roles and for Mother's Day, getting to honor her specifically is really great," says a loving Rebecca. "That makes my heart swell because I know my kids love me and you know sometimes, we don't always just say it gushing all the time, but I certainly feel it by the way they interact with me and the nice things that they do for me," says proud Lucy. A lot of love for her kids, as well! "So much - all the way to the moon and back, like the book," says Lucy, and of course all year long.
For more info: https://www.mdanderson.org
