I was lucky to have known Linda since I was born. She and my sister were two of my favorite baby sitters! I came along just as they both were at the age of graduating from pet cats and pups to ME! And I am sure I was harder to deal with than all the other creatures they had cared for up to then!
Linda's parents were great influences on her, too, I can reveal. On several visits back to our hometown of Monmouth, IL., I met people who were either in her Mother's Harding Elementary School classes or her Father's music lessons. One night in a local tavern, I talked to a black man who remembered how Mrs. Kobler was the most encouraging teacher he ever had, and a great influence in his life, later Linda related how much extra time and patience her Mother devoted to some of her students.
We all know how that care and compassion was central to her nursing life, too. My father was a patient at the U of IA Hospitals and even though Linda was then a new student nurse and assigned to other Departments, she was always there whenever any of our family was there to visit Dad. Thank you to all of you who passed those loving favors on to Linda for us all.
