at your service
The Lamp that Heals
T
hroughout the ages, healers have been called to care for the sick. These selfless caregivers worked with varied skills passed onto them by others who had studied nature, illness, and the human body. Florence Nightingale took it upon herself to train nurses during the Crimean War. Her knowledge raised nursing standards, improved hygiene, and reduced death rates significantly. She was revered and referred to as “The Lady with the Lamp” by Victorians. The lamp she carried became a symbol of her healing, tending to those in need of care. Nightingale worked to create the first professional nursing program in 1860 at St. Thomas Hospital in London. As the founder of modern nursing, the Nightingale pledge is an oath spoken by all nurses.
Sanzo. The Nurses Honor Guard dresses in the traditional white uniform complete with cap and cape. The ceremony is brief and consists of the Honor Guard reciting the Nightingale Tribute and laying a white rose on the casket or next to the urn, symbolizing the nurse’s dedication to the profession. After the Nightingale Tribute is recited, the nurse’s name is called three times and a triangle is rung after each call of the name. After the role, the nurse is officially released from their nursing duties. A lit Nightingale lamp is carried up at the beginning of the ceremony and is then extinguished and presented to the family with personal condolences made. Milford resident Lynn Veccharelli, a registered
In 2003, The Nurses Honor Guard was formed in Kansas to offer tributes to nurses who have passed away. Julia Godby Murray learned of the Honor Guard at a conference. “New chapters have been founded, and social media has helped us increase our members.” Murray is now coordinator of the National Nurses Honor Guard Coalition. “Nurses are natural healers. We offer another opportunity to do what they love to do and that is to heal.” In spring 2021, Shaina Hamel, Athena Mains, and Maria Cusano-Sanzo met and formed a Nurses Honor Guard chapter here in Connecticut. By September, they had performed their first tribute. Tributes have been performed all over the state with volunteers of both retired “The Nurses Honor Guard pays tribute to nurses at the time of their death by performing the Nightingale Tribute at the funeral or memorial service. This service is similar to a military tribute and officially
SUSAN CARROLL DWYER
and currently practicing nurses.
releases the nurse from their nursing duties,”
The Connecticut Nurses Honor Guard attends funerals of nurses to honor their service with the
explains founding member Maria Cusano-
Nightingale Tribute.
56 Milford Living • Spring