LOVES PARK—Even after personally attending about 110 nurse funerals, Debbie Green, a parishioner at St. Bridget Parish in Loves Park, has a catch in her voice as she talks about her work with the Nurse Honor Guard.
“My heart is full,” she says. “It has truly been guided by the Holy Spirit. … This is what the Lord sent my way. I work on it every day.”
A Nurse Honor Guard is a volunteer organization of nurses who perform a ceremonial tribute at a deceased nurse’s funeral or memorial service. The ceremony is similar to military honor guards, says the OPEIU (Office and Professional Employees International Union) Nurses Council.
A couple of years ago, Green heard about a young nurse who had died in Indiana and a Nurse Honor Guard that traveled from Indiana to be at her funeral. Green inquired about the honor guard and began to organize the Forest City Nurse Honor Guard locally with a few other nurses.
Those few have grown to about 100 nurses in the area honor guard who have served at about 120 funerals over two and a half years, Green says. Their ages range from 20s to 80s, and the nurses work full-time or part-time or are retired.
Green says that the nurses have served at funerals and visitations, at gravesites, in bars, at homes — anywhere families wish. Many such funerals are Catholic or Christian, while some nurses and families are of other faiths or no faith at all.
“We will accommodate to whatever the family and the church want,” Green says.
An appreciated presence
She describes families and friends who come up to the nurses after the honor guard tribute to reminisce about their loved one’s nursing career or how a nurse touched their lives.
“The impact is something I never expected,” Green says. “They are so grateful. We as a group of nurses are so humbled and our hearts so full from the blessings we receive from these families. It’s incredible.
“We’ve met so many pastors and wonderful people at funeral homes. I never expected the abundance of blessings from this.”
The group also can do a living tribute, honoring a nurse who is alive and perhaps in hospice or in an assisted living facility or at home. “We cover you with love just as you covered your patients with love,” is part of what they say at such tributes, Green says.
“The Ultimate Look of a Nurse”
The Nurse Honor Guard ceremony begins with its nurses’ timeless uniform. The uniforms are a traditional white, with blue and red capes and, of course, the traditional white cap. They are “kind of a throwback to that era” of Red Cross days in past wars, Green says, adding that, “People love the way they look. (It’s) so synonymous with the nurse.”
The OPEIU website describes the ceremony as about five minutes long. It includes a recitation of the Nightingale Tribute and placement of a white rose on the casket or next to the urn. A triangle is rung as the nurse’s name is called three times. Words spoken then symbolically release the nurse from her nursing duties: “May you rest in eternal peace, and we’ll take it from here.”
A Nightingale lamp is lit and carried up at the beginning of the ceremony and at the end is extinguished and presented to the family with personal
condolences.
The service is offered at no charge. Nurse Honor Guards exist across the U.S., with local chapters associated with the National Nurses Honor
Guard Coalition.
Early on, Green made packets for funeral homes in the Rockford area to get the word out about the honor guard. She looks at area obituaries and contacts the funeral homes if she notices a nurse’s death so they can check with the family to see if they would wish for an honor guard.
“I have a lot of faithful nurses,” Green says, noting that with their large membership they can accommodate most all requests. “We are a group,” she says. “We’ll travel up to two hours away if we hear of a family that needs and wants us to come.”
An honor guard can be requested through website: www.fcnursehonorguard.com or contact your area funeral home, or call 815-494-5700.
