Our Mom died on May 7, 2015. She was an extraordinary person. Mom’s story begins on September 30, 1922.
She was born to Cora Wells Graybeal and Glenn Graybeal of Rising
Sun and she was raised on a farm in Cecil County, Maryland.
She was preceded by a sister…Vivian…and a brother…Paul.
Later, her birth would be followed by Edward, Ruby, and
John. They were an extraordinary family.
Mom was a compassionate, caring soul which led to her chosen
career: nursing.
She graduated from the Maryland General Hospital School of Nursing
in 1944 and married a former elementary school teacher named Edward Merton
Fishel on March 14, 1945. Nineteen months later, I came along.
My parents were living in an upstairs apartment on 33rd
Street near Wyman Park. Incredibly, I still have memories of those
days…particularly a steam engine ride to Wilmington, Delaware to visit her
sister, Vivian. When I was born, Dad had already been called into the military
where he served in the Phillippines and contracted malaria. He would not return
home until after I was born…so Mom raised me by herself.
A few years later, Pegg came along and soon Mom and Dad were
building a house in Arbutus with help from my grandfather , Uncle Ed, and Uncle
John. I can still remember Uncle Ed helping to put down the oak flooring.
Mom started her nursing career at Maryland General but when they
moved to Arbutus, she found a job as a floor nurse St. Agnes Hospital. She was eventually promoted to night supervisor where she
patrolled the halls insisting that all nursing care be up to the highest
standards.
We heard stories at the viewing that some nurses were
scared of her but they knew that she always had their back. Her proud career at St. Agnes spanned more than 30 years.I can still remember her carefully starching and ironing her
nursing uniform in our kitchen in Arbutus and then polishing her white nurses’
shoes. She took a nap in the evening after first preparing us dinner. Long after we were in bed, she would head out into the night,
returning in time to make us breakfast the next morning. She loved being a nurse!
Dad, meantime, had taken a position with Calvert Fire Insurance
Company in which he was a claims adjuster. But the US Army wasn’t done with him yet. He was re-called
to help fight the “Korean Conflict” and Mom was left home to have her third
child…Sue…without support from her husband. Somehow, Mom got it all done.
Among the many highlights of our childhood was the annual two week
trip to Ocean City to stay at the Seaview
Hotel. We made the pilgrimage with six other families and it was “heaven”
for us children as we got to play on the beach and ride bikes on the boardwalk. For a few years, our little apartment didn't even have a
refrigerator but somehow Mom managed to keep us fed using only a large cooler
with a chunk of ice to "refrigerate" perishables.
Eventually, each of us children went away to college and Mom and
Dad had the freedom to travel all over the world, even back to the Philippines
to find the orphanage that Dad helped establish.
They spent much of their final years together traveling…taking
cruises…and visiting their family and friends. I will never forget our final cruise with Mom and Dad. We sailed from New
York to Nova Scotia in the remnants of a small hurricane. Before Dad died in 2002, Mom devoted herself to making his final
days as comfortable as possible. This
was no easy thing!
After Dad’s passing, Mom's final chapter spanned almost exactly 13
years. She moved to Charlestown Retirement Community and embarked on a
new set of cruises. She always enjoyed traveling with someone. Barb and I were privileged to go on a cruise with her and Mary
Noble to the Panama Canal. It was a
dream we could only hope for.
It was noted by Mom's first daughter, Pegg Melfa, that a change occurred in Mom when she had her third grandchild. She never knew her own grandparents because they died too young. Mom had always been a very serious person; perhaps even a driven person. But when her grandchildren started to arrive, she seemed to realize that these young people were something to enjoy and cherish and she loved them all.
