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When children get sick at Samuel Staples Elementary School, they are turned over to the kind hands of school nurse Carolyn Kearney. Shes been diagnosing stuffy noses and sour stomachs for the past 15 years and has loved every minute of it.
"I like working with the kids," she said. "[They] come in and they're sick with a stomach ache, not because they're actually sick but maybe because they're tired or there's something going on at home and I can talk to them about it."
In addition to being an RN, Kearney is also a certified grief counselor a skill she sought after a fire took the lives of two of her young children almost 30 years ago. "I tried to transfer it into something positive," she said.
Compassion is a trait that she passed on to her surviving children. Her son, Jonathan is an emergency medical responder for Monroe and her daughter, Vriana, takes care of horses in Newtown. "We both take care of animals," Kearney joked, "only I take care of people, she takes care of horses." Her son, Matthew is an engineer in Massachusetts.
In addition to her duties as a school nurse she also volunteers for the Easton EMS. This year she was selected to serve as the chief.
In her spare time she enjoys reading mystery novels and traveling to places such as Myrtle Beach, where she enjoys a good book on the sand while her husband, Bill, tests his luck at fishing. But her vocation is also her passion, something that was instilled in her at a young age.
"My aunt was an Army nurse. She'd tell me all kinds of nursing stories. So from then on, that's what I wanted to do."
Did you have Ms. Kearney as your nurse when you were in school? Please share your memories of this wonderful community member by commenting in the box below.
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