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St. Bernardine staff nurses helped cover for those
who were dealing with home evacuations, or unable to
commute to work because of closed roadways, Groshong
said.
Camaraderie and dedication among nurses and hospital
staff workers was evident in hospitals across Southern
California.
Kathy Lee, RN, interim manager and emergency department
coordinator at Simi Valley Hospital, said the hospital's
housekeeping staff put in an inordinate amount of work
to eliminate the "sooty" smell that was threatening
air quality and comfort for patients.
Employees at Simi Valley, which came close to evacuating
nearly 100 patients Oct. 26, also started a fund for
a security guard whose former wife and the children
he supports lost their home in San Diego, Lee said.
The generosity of friends and family was especially
heartwarming for Herold and one of her neighbors, psychiatric
nurse Linda Salsberry, RN. Salsberry, who also lost
her home in Alpine, was given a $5,000, no-questions-asked
donation by her employer, Alvarado Parkway Institute/Behavioral
Health System in La Mesa.
"I call them my second family," Salsberry
said. "It was just overwhelming … they told
me to take as long as I wanted to recover, to take my
time and stay out as long as you want. Everyone hugged
me."
"I wasn't even able to cry about it for 10 days,"
because of the outpouring of support, Herold said. Friends
and family have provided food, video games for the children
and a local property owner even granted them shelter
in an off-season beach house.
The Herolds plan to move back to Alpine soon in a rental
home and will oversee the reconstruction of a new house
on their property. There will be a few changes, such
as firefighting spray pumps, a swimming pool and a row
of star jasmine bushes that might help slow future fires.
Even with the hope and thanks that more tragedy was
averted, life was far from back to normal last week
for many of the nurses.
Bock and her family returned to their house after two
weeks, only to find charred roads, ash-laden lawns and
intermittent power. Bock's neighborhood was running
on generators, she said Nov. 12, and travel was still
hazardous. The guardrails along the main road running
west out of Running Springs were incinerated, requiring
all drivers to follow police-led escorts up and down
the mountain road.
"It's about a 30-minute drive for me to come to
work anyway, and this just added time on to it,"
Bock said, "but it's much better than the alternative
… The other road to Running Springs was closed
because of the fire. And there's a third road that goes
up through Big Bear and that's a two-hour drive."
Bock and her family have been cleaning up and bringing
their home back to normal. Even without her house, Salsberry
said she also feels a sense of peace returning.
She returned last week to view the destruction for
the first time, and saw only one item left standing
from her house: the fireplace. But from the front seat
of her Jeep, she said she saw a hint of beauty-and felt
it at the same time.
"It was actually beautiful, because the fire had
refined it and made it purer," Salsberry said of
the stone-masonry work of the fireplace. "And it
made me feel stronger, more refined and purer, [in order]
to go on."
Contact Glen Fest at glenf@nurseweek.com
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