Hospital work a family affair
NEW HAVEN — It may seem like Marjorie Telemacque has a brood of children working with her at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Actually, she just has three.
Telemacque, who has worked in environmental services at the hospital for 27 years, keeping her patch of the hospital clean and tidy, is the woman to whom others come for advice and counsel, knowing she will listen and steer them in the right direction, keeping their confidentiality.
She can get frustrated, though, when those people don't take her advice.
Her supervisor, Stephen Branch, calls her a “mother hen.”
Telemacque's current assignment is the atrium at 20 York St., where patients and visitors eat or just relax around the fountain. She's more easily found than ever before.
And though she doesn't see them often, other than on occasional lunch breaks, Telemacque is pleased her three daughters have joined her on the hospital staff. (She also has a son, Christian Charles.)
“I feel great and blessed to have them here at Yale New Haven Hospital, which is a great place to work,” she said. “I feel like a hero. A lot of kids don't like the hospital settings. … They didn't want to be around patients and stuff.”
Telemacque and her children immigrated from the Caribbean country of Dominica on June 20, 1994, and she started as a temporary worker at Yale New Haven in August. She was hired full time in May 1995.
Tara Ann Labone started last June in patient transportation, the third daughter to join the hospital. Dreialice Adkins, a transition coordinator in case management, has worked there seven years, and Alisa Simon, who conducts pediatric sleep studies, has been at the hospital six years.
All four live in West Haven. Labone and her three children live with her mother. Telemacque has seven grandchildren in all. Adkins has a son and Charles has three children.
Telemacque said what she likes about her job is “the patients, first and foremost … and doing everything about my job — my co-workers, my managers, my directors, my supervisors,” she said. “And then I also take care of the visitors and families as well.”
Adkins also started in environmental services, but moved on to patient care associate and business associate before her current job as transition coordinator. “I transition patients from the hospitals to rehabilitations, set up home care services, transportation arrangements,” she said. Now she's working on a master's degree in social work at Walden University, an online school.
“Yale has given me that opportunity to continue and grow here within the hospital,” she said.
Talking about her mom, Adkins said it's been “a pleasure to come in and work under her shadows, because she knows a lot of people. She's well known and well established here in the hospital. It was big shoes to fill.”
Branch described just how well respected Telemacque is. “Marge is very conscientious about her work, very passionate about the job that she does, very passionate about making sure that Yale customers, patients, visitors a re taken care of,” he said.
“And I think it's wonderful that she has a lot of friends within her department, a lot of people that talk to her, a lot of people who respect her from within the department and outside the department. I also know that she's mother hen to a lot of those employees, as well,” Branch said.
Branch also described how Telemacque expects those who come to her not just to tell her their issues but to take a stand. He told of a recent town hall meeting, the first since August 2021, when no one asked any questions.
Branch said: “Marge got up, and she said, ‘Shame on all of you. All of you are talking to me and telling me all of the things that you all wanted to say in this town hall, and not one of you have anything to say? I'm done with this town hall.' She got up and walked out.”
He said, “I know where Marge was coming from. … All of her fellow employees know who she is and know that she's a good person to talk to. So they tell her if they had concerns … she'll probably hear about it before any of the leadership. … She was just so frustrated with all of the talk that she had already had for over nine months' worth of talking.”
“She gives a lot of employees advice on how to handle things before they go to management,” Labone said. “She tells them, watch how you approach them. She does; she helps a lot of the employees. … And even the people that's not in her department.”
Branch said management will go to her as well and ask, “What's the temperature? … Where's everybody at?”
“We can't even have a quiet lunch break without someone interrupting” to ask a question, Simon said.
The daughters also get recognized. “Oh, yeah. Even outside of work,” Simon said. “‘I've seen your mom today.' … Even now until this day, there are people that I've seen, they're like, ‘You're Marjorie's daughter. I remember when you were young. … I remember when you were a little baby.' I'm like, ‘OK.'”
“What you see is what we see at home,” Adkins said. “It's no different, no different. She came up here. She made a good life for us, and we're appreciative of it.”
“She's a very strong woman,” Simon said. “She brought us up on her own. She's a hard worker. I learned a lot of things from her. To see her independent, take care of all of us, even through hard times, she still made a way and I'm very thankful for it.”
“My mom has helped me a lot,” Labone said. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be where I am right now. She's helped me a lot. … I could have been living in the shelter to accomplish what I needed to accomplish. But she told me I can come stay with her for a bit until I do what I need to do to get back on my feet.”
Labone said her mother and her sisters all are helpful in taking care of her three children, ages 2 to 15. She's taken a break from going to Gateway Community College because she wants to switch her career goal from nursing to social work.
“It's good to be working here,” Labone said. “I've been trying to get into this hospital for a while. … But as far as being able to work here with my sisters and my mom, it's great. I love working here. … Every day is definitely Mother's Day for us.”
“Like I said, she's a great mom,” Simon said. “She raised us well. There are great memories, and I'm really thankful for everything that she's done for us.”