Mothers and their children have an almost indescribable bond. But those who work together in health care — especially during the pandemic of the century — have shared experiences that are incomprehensible to others. They were on the frontlines while sometimes having to avoid loved ones.
Three pairs of moms and kids who work in local hospitals discussed those stressful moments and the reasons they went into health care — along with why it was so worth it — with The Times-Picayune. (And they let us in on their Mother’s Day plans.) During Zoom interviews, this is what they said.
Yolanda Cobb and her son Darryl Cobb both work at Children's Hospital New Orleans. Photographed on Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
A familiar face
Yolanda Cobb and her son Darryl Cobb both work at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. She is a supervisor for the first-floor registration desk and has worked at the uptown establishment for 21 years. Darryl, who has been there for nearly three years, greets people entering the emergency room.
“I'd definitely say she played a big part in me wanting to do this,” Darryl Cobb said. “I saw how good she was with the patients and I automatically knew that I wanted to follow in her footsteps.”
But once Darryl Cobb began working at the hospital, he began to doubt himself.
“He was like, ‘Ma, I'm going to have to quit, I can't do this,'” Yolanda recalled. “And I'm like, ‘Yes, you can do this. I'm not going to let you fall. Anything you need, I'm right here … When patients come in, you can't let them know that you are scared. You have to focus and take control.’”
Darryl Cobb ran with his mom’s advice.
“She's been there so long, so she knows the hospital like the back of her hand,” he said. “So if there’s something that I don't know, it just feels comfortable knowing that I could go to my mom.”
Yolanda and Darryl have lunch together every day, and they are looking forward to a relaxed meal at a restaurant on Mother’s Day.
During the pandemic, however, mother and son kept busy by calming concerned patients and their family members as they approached the hospital, explaining why they had to wear a mask or have their temperature taken.
They were both happy to help.
“This is what I enjoy doing,” Yolanda Cobb said. “I enjoy working with children. I enjoy my co-workers. I just enjoy being here. This is my life.”
Darryl Cobb can relate.
“My mom and I share the same interests in helping others,” he said. “So just the fact that we're able to do it together makes the experience 10 times better.”
Judy Scanlon, right, is the senior director of nursing at East Jefferson General Hospital and her daughter, Kimberly, is an ICU nurse.
Night and day
Kimberly Scanlon is a nurse in the intensive care unit at East Jefferson General Hospital, where her mother Judy Scanlon serves as the senior director of nursing. There was a time, however, when Judy Scanlon also worked in the ICU — and sometimes used her expertise at home.
“My mom was always the person to take care of our family members. She always knew the right thing to do,” Kimberly Scanlon said. “She would be there to help with medicines or bandage wounds. And I loved to learn that from her. She talked about how great being a nurse is, and how awesome this career is, which guided me to want to be a nurse.”
Judy Scanlon knew her daughter was a natural fit for the nursing field.
“Kimberly was always very kind, caring and interested in what was going on,” she said. “If she broke a bone, she wanted to see the X-rays and she wanted the doctor to explain to her what the bones were and how they work.”
Although her daughter works the night shift, mom is never far away.
“She will make me food and leave it in the refrigerator for me. If she stays here late, she'll come see me, and tell me goodnight as I start my night,” Kimberly said. “Every now and then, if she's here early and I'm leaving a little late, we'll get breakfast downstairs in the cafeteria before I head home.”
(For Mother’s Day, the Scanlons are dining at Gianna Restaurant with their family.)
“Usually, she'll give me a call when she's on her way home, and then we'll talk a little bit about how the night went,” Judy Scanlon said. “So it's always exciting for me, because it brings me back to when I was an ICU nurse. It keeps us very close.”
Those calls were especially important during the height of the pandemic, when Kimberly Scanlon was completing her first year as a nurse and her mother was battling her own bout of COVID.
“She's putting her life at risk to care for these patients,” Judy Scanlon said. “I can remember feeling very touched by that, but on the other hand, almost feeling like, ‘Oh my, is this really what you should be doing right now?’”
Judy Scanlon’s concern was countered with pride.
“Then she'd talk to me and tell me some of the stories,” she said. “I was so in awe of what she and all of her co-workers were accomplishing.”
Jennie Pinac is director of ambulatory surgery at Touro Infirmary, and her daughter, Sara, is the clinical educator for Crescent City Physicians.
Keeping their distance
Jennie Pinac, the director of ambulatory surgery at Touro, has worked as a nurse in the surgery department for more than 40 years. It’s partially why her daughter, Sara Spencer, ended up in health care — but not in surgery.
“You have to take calls for emergency surgeries, and there were many times that I got the call and I didn't have a babysitter,” Jennie said, explaining how a young Sara would sit at the surgery desk until a family member scooped her up. “Many times, I dragged her out. And I think that is why today, she did not go into the surgery world.”
Spencer is the clinical educator for Crescent City Physicians. But during the height of COVID-19, she worked as a nurse in Touro’s emergency department.
“It all kind of exploded,” Spencer said of the coronavirus pandemic. “And very quickly, we were running out of ICU beds.”
Nurses bounced from room to room, fulfilling unfamiliar roles.
“We adapted and did a damn good job at it, but it was very stressful,” she said.
Touro put a hold on surgeries. So nurses in the ambulatory surgery department were reassigned to different positions. Pinac’s new role was fitting hospital nurses with N95 masks.
“They were panicking just as everyone else was,” she said. “They wanted to protect themselves as well as their patients.”
Mother and daughter didn’t see much of each other during that time.
“Sara was really afraid to come around us,” Pinac said, explaining how her husband — Sara's father — suffers from asthma and pulmonary issues.
“I tried my hardest to stay as far away from them as I could, but I'd call mom when I was going into work, and she was going home,” Spencer said, remembering how she worked night shifts. “It was great to have someone that kind of knew …”
“...Who kind of understood what was going on,” Pinac, said, finishing her daughter's sentence. “Sara had the support to vent about what she was seeing.”
Pinac and Spencer finally saw each other about three months after the pandemic began, during a small, staff appreciation party.
“Sara was working that night. She was getting off and I said, ‘Why don't you come outside? They have some food and a little jazz band and everybody's here.’ So she did and I just went up …” Spencer recalled, wiping away tears.
“She literally hugs me in front of all of the administration,” she said, laughing. “I'm like, ‘Mom. COVID. Get away from me. This is not 6 feet!’”
On Mother’s Day, the vaccinated mom and daughter duo will celebrate with their family during a crawfish boil — out in the open.
