She’s ready to be a nurse, but fearful of the costs
Savannah Bingham is excited about her first job as a registered nurse at a Phoenix hospital, where she’s assigned to work on cardiac, neurological and transplant units.
In a few months, she’ll work with patients with COVID-19. She’ll take every precaution, but there’s still a chance she could get sick.
She’s pondering her death, something she shouldn’t have to think about at 27.
She attended college while working full-time, graduating from Gateway Community College in May. She’s still taking classes and will graduate in December with a degree in nursing from Arizona State University.
Savannah is my son Sawyer’s halfsister. I’ve known her since she was 5. She’s smart and compassionate. She’ll be a great nurse.
“For me, it seemed like the best way to blend my love of science and my desire to take care of people,” Savannah said.
It could cost her her life.
Savannah would want her funeral to be a celebration of her life. She’d like it to be outside, maybe at Papago Park.
She’d want people to wear bright colors and floral prints, even sequins. It will be a dance party with music from Lizzo, The Chicks and Cardi B.
She doesn’t want people to cry. Savannah wants to donate her organs, for transplant or research, and be cremated, her ashes divided among family and friends.
Savannah would want her mom to spread her ashes at Pikes Peak State Park in Iowa, where they scattered her grandfather’s ashes. Her boyfriend Martín would take his to Ireland, where they vacationed. I’d spread mine on Mission Beach.
And if Savannah dies of COVID-19, she wants us to send some of her ashes to President Donald Trump and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. Because it shouldn’t have gotten this bad.
“This is on them,” she said.