‘I gave birth to her. And she’s going to keep me alive.’
As soon as the COVID-19 vaccine became available to her department, Lynn Griesmaier, nurse coordinator for breast medical oncology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, jumped at the opportunity.
“I took the first available spot,” Griesmaier said. “I said, ‘I’ll go anywhere, at any time.’ ”
As soon as
the COVID-19 vaccine became an option, nurse Lizzy Murphy, education coordinator at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, jumped at the opportunity.
“We’re just so excited to have a vaccine,” Murphy said. “I was like, ‘As many hands as they need. Let’s get this in people’s arms.’ ”
Griesmaier signed up to receive her first dose of the vaccine at 9 a.m. on Dec.
18. Murphy signed up to work one of Northwestern’s vaccine tables all day on Dec. 18.
Griesmaier is Murphy’s mom. The two have leaned on each other and drawn strength from each other and shared tears and the occasional lunch (when there’s time) and rides to work (masked, with the car windows down) as the novel coronavirus crashed through our lives, infecting more than 1 million Illinoisans.
“At the beginning I was keeping a log, ‘How many patient exposures do you think you had today?’ ” Griesmaier said. “And then I was checking it against the statistics on TV. I mean, it was nuts. I was really so worried about how things were going for her.”
Griesmaier was in awe, she said, of her daughter’s calm, and her lighting-fast mastery of COVID-19 protocols and personal protective equipment needs and severe respiratory illnesses.
“I’ve been a nurse for a very long time,” Griesmaier said. (Forty years, to be exact.) “I just kept thinking, ‘How does she know all of this? How is she doing all of this?’ ”
Working at the same hospital was a tremendous relief, Griesmaier said.
“Not only because I had such confidence in her,” she said. “But because I still felt like I could make sure she’s OK.”
Murphy was supposed to get married on May 30. She and her mom had been planning the big wedding for more than a year.
“At the beginning it was like, ‘It’s going to be fine by May,’ ” Murphy said.
“And then the realization of it all finally hit us. So that emotional side of canceling your wedding, my mom was there for all of it.”
And then, as the year like no other drew to a close, a vaccine arrived.
And Griesmaier was scheduled to receive it on the day her daughter was scheduled to deliver it.
“I knew my mom was coming that day, but there were 18 stations,” Murphy said. “The chances of all of it happening just right...”
Murphy had received her first dose Dec. 17, the day before her mom was scheduled to receive hers. Murphy knew the drill, and she also knew the emotions. Griesmaier felt them all, the moment she walked into the hospital to receive her shot.
“It felt so reverent,” Griesmaier said. “I’m just so grateful we’re getting to do this. I was in awe of the moment.”
Then Murphy’s table had an opening. And it was Griesmaier’s turn.
“I thought, ‘I gave birth to her. And she’s going to keep me alive,’ ” Griesmaier said.
Murphy administered the shot, which Griesmaier says she barely felt. On Friday, three weeks after that first shot, Murphy administered her mom’s second dose.
“It feels sort of full-circle,” Murphy said. “I wouldn’t be a nurse without my mom. I owe my work ethic and everything and the opportunity to go to nursing school and have a great education to my parents.
“I always feel like I can never repay her for everything she’s done for me,” Murphy continued. “This I feel like is the greatest gift I could give her.”
“I’m just so proud of her,” Griesmaier said. “She’s done such beautiful work. Her heart is just — she’s a nurse, true and true. And it’s just amazing. Here’s your child. Here’s your daughter. How this all came together, it’s just amazing.”
Griesmaier helps patients who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer. She sees fear and hope every work day, pre- and mid-pandemic.
“I’m just amazed at the resilience,” she said. “The strength and courage that my patients have and their families have, I’m always just amazed.”
The arrival of this vaccine, she said, gives her hope for their futures, for their ability to ward off a dangerous virus while their immune systems are already severely taxed.
“It’s a good powerful moment between us,” Murphy said. “And it’s also a sense of hope that we’re all moving in the right direction.”