Nurses are some of the special souls among us. They dedicate their lives to the compassionate care of others. The Arkansas Nurses Honor Guard serves those nurses usually in death to memorialize all their years of caregiving.
“Arkansas Nurses Honor Guard was started in 2021 by three nurses,” says Tina Coppock, LPN and Saline County Chapter Leader. “Grown into 24 chapters across the state and we have currently served 220 tributes to nurses at funeral services and memorial services. This is our very first living tribute.”
Saturday the Arkansas Nurses Honor Guard honored 97-year-old Eva Young and 72-year-old Jan Stackhouse with a hand-crafted quilt, a bouquet of flowers surrounding a white rose, and a Nightingale lamp keepsake at Southern Trace Rehabilitation and Care Center in Bryant.
“We don’t have to know the nurse to know that they are our sister or our brother and it’s a very emotional thing to be able to deliver a tribute to them,” says Coppock.
Coppock says a member of the Saline County Arkansas Nurses Honor Guard is an employee of Southern Trace and told them about Eva, a very special resident.
“She was telling us about this 97-year-old nurse that has always taken her stethoscope and she’s always trying to still be a nurse and take care of her peers,” said Coppock.
Eva Young, now in her 90s, became a nurse in the 1940s. While preparing for her living tribute, Coppock says they learned of another unique resident named Jan Stackhouse. Stackhouse was the former Director of Nursing at Southern Trace Rehabilitation where she now resides.
“Nurses dedicate so much of their lives to taking care of other people. It’s our opportunity to give back to that family to represent their parent or their mother or sister or loved one that was a nurse,” says Coppock.
The Nurses Honor Guard has been around the United States since 2002 but came to Arkansas in 2021.
Source: abc7 On Your Side
