Two nurses in formal white uniforms prepare to spread the word about the Hancock Health Nurses Honor Guard at this year’s Hancock County 4-H Fair parade.
HANCOCK COUNTY – British nurse Florence Nightingale, credited as the founder of modern nursing, was known to carry a lamp to light the way while providing care to patients throughout the dark of night in the 19th century.
Today, a local team of nurses known as the Hancock Health Nurses Honor Guard pays homage to the legions of caregivers who have followed in her footsteps.
Linda Garrity, who founded the local guard in 2017, said it’s a privilege to honor individuals who devoted their lives to taking care of others.
The local guard consists of 20 working and retired nurses who provide honor ceremonies at funerals, gravesides or celebrations of life throughout a four-county region, including Hancock, Henry, Rush and Shelby.
“We did five in August, which was a record for us,” said Garrity, who worked at Hancock Regional Hospital from 2011-2020.
Now semi-retired, she’s on a mission to expand the local honor guard’s reach.
Each 10-minute ceremony includes the recitation of the Florence Nightingale pledge, which all nurses make upon graduating from nursing school.
The ceremony also features a display featuring a stethoscope, nurses hat and a framed photo of the honoree and her nursing school diploma, as well as a verbal roll call and release of duty, in which the nurse’s official end of duty is announced.
At the end of each ceremony, the nurse or nurse’s family is gifted a hand-held lamp with a candle fashioned after the ones Florence Nightingale used to light her path in caring for patients.
“The ceremony is very touching. The families are just so appreciative when they see it,” said Garrity, a semi-retired nurse from Fortville, who serves as a substitute nurse at Eastern Hancock schools.
She and her honor guard co-lead, Michele McGill, are in search of more members as they grow the organization’s reach.
Garrity said nurse honor guards were first established on the east and west coasts through the National Nurses Honor Guard Coalition, and have since made their way to the Midwest.
The local volunteer team relies on donations managed by the Hancock Health Foundation to cover the cost of the ceremonies, which are free to families.
The team is working with funeral homes to spread the word about the free honor program, which is available to the families of all those who served as licensed nurses in any capacity.
Guard members like Garrity monitor local obituaries and reach out to the families of nurses who have passed away. The guard will also honor older nurses who have devoted their lives to their craft, including those in hospice care, nursing homes or senior living communities.
“Why wait until they’re gone?” said Garrity, who has been advocating to spread the word about the honor guard throughout the area.
She and fellow honor guard members rode in this year’s Hancock County 4-H Fair parade in their white nursing uniforms and signature blue capes, and will do the same in the upcoming Riley Festival parade.
They’re also speaking at nursing homes, senior living communities, and service organizations.
“We want to make sure people know about it so they can contact us to do a service for their loved ones, or to encourage nurses to include an honor guard service as part of their funeral planning,” Garrity said.
The guard is also seeking more nurses to join their ranks.
“We have 20 LPNs and RNs right now, but it’s sometimes not enough since a lot of our nurses are still working, which marks it challenging to cover ceremonies,” said Garrity, who says the honor guard helps her stay connected to nursing in retirement.
“We need more volunteers, especially retired nurses, so we can always commit to be there, because we don’t ever want to not be there for those who want a service,” she said.
Garrity said it’s important for fellow nurses to provide these honor guard ceremonies, “because it takes another nurse to really understand what we do. We can tell people what we do, but unless you’re there in the moments of life and birth to the moments of death, only other nurses really understand that, so it’s important to be honored by those who have lived it,” she said.
“We do it for the love of nursing and caring for others, and the families really appreciate that,” said Garrity, a registered nurse who worked for IU Health (formerly Methodist) for 25 years before coming to work for Hancock Health in Greenfield.
The majority of her nursing career was focused on labor and maternity care.
“That was my great love, and still is,” said Garrity, who said helping bring a baby into the world is “the greatest thing ever.”
Since launching her nursing career in 1986 she estimates she’s helped thousands of new mothers and babies throughout the years, whether in the delivery room, providing lactation and Lamaze education or conducting at-home visits to ensure care for both mother and child.
Garrity semi-retired in 2020 only to be diagnosed with breast cancer shortly thereafter, facing a health battle which had her on the receiving end of care.
Today she is driven to show all nurses and their families just how much each nurse is valued by her participation in the honor guard.
“What motivates me is my love of nursing. It’s just been one of the greatest things in my life. There were challenging times, but I can truly say I’ve loved every minute of it,” said Garrity. “They say once you’re a nurse you’re always a nurse. It’s part of who you are.”
In May she was among hundreds of nurses who attended the National Nurses Honor Guard Coalition’s first national conference in Kentucky.
“They were hoping at least 50 people would show up and 450 nurses showed up. We filled the ballroom,” said Garrity. “We were all wearing our white uniforms and white capes when we had a big group photo taken by someone on top of a crane as the fog was rolling in. It was the neatest thing,” she said.
To learn more about the Hancock Health Nurses Honor Guard, or to request a service, call Garrity at 317- 372-8127.
