08/27/2024
Please join me in congratulating Kim Gideon on her retirement 😁. Wednesday will be her last day 📅 after nearly 40 years at Cox Medical Centers, half of that at Cox North and half at Hulston Cancer Center.
Please 🙏 grant me the latitude to tell a story about a remarkable human being. (Being the humble Sunday School teacher person she is, she won’t like this recognition, but has earned it and hopefully will be an inspiration to someone else.)
As the youngest of three children born into modest circumstances in rural Eastern Taney County Missouri in the mid-60s she would climb to the top of her profession and leave a legacy for others to admire.
As her parents worked hard in the fields and timber🌲, she occasionally spent time at a nearby store owned by Lonnie Tabor just north of Rueter, Missouri. That's where this young girl she learned to count using bottle caps. (And no telling what else)
When she was about seven years old they moved to a 400 acre family homestead cabin 🏠 deep in the Ozark Mountains near Bradleyville, Mo. The farm being surrounded by National Forest, did NOT have electricity ⚡️ for the first year they lived there. Life was no doubt hard, as they had to use Coleman stoves & lanterns and had no electricity for a well. They waited impatiently for a literal “Act of Congress” that was required for the electricity to be ran underground through the National Forest. One year to the day after moving they would have it. But, alongside her sister Sherry and brother Chuck, with the love of her parents, Richard & Kathryn Braden, the family thrived. This difficult life, by today’s standards, shaped her into a loving ❤️, hard-working, person with drive and fortitude that has sustained her for nearly 40 years.
That year Kim would start first grade, and because of her high aptitude, her teacher secretly had her doing 2nd grade work most of the year, and at the end of that year promoted her to the third grade. Even though it is believed as early as four years old she was destined to be a nurse, her first unofficial nursing job was helping a bedridden lady named Alta Whittaker who lived near where she got off the bus at this young age. Her husband, Jess, could not maneuver her back and forth into the bed and Kim would help with an apparatus that would help them move her. And then after that, she would walk the 2.5-mile gravel road to their ⛰️ home. Through school Kim would spend a lot of time with her grandparents, Chad & Polly Brumfield. Polly, being a former schoolteacher, was a very bright, hardworking woman and certainly a positive influence on all her grandchildren. In a story relayed to me this very week, her father told me of a statement that Polly once made about young Kim. Polly once jokingly said, “Kim was a natural for taking care of people and so wanted to be a nurse she might push somebody down a flight of stairs just to have somebody take care of.”
In High School, being both an outstanding scholar and athlete Kim once scored 17 points in a basketball game, and that was all the team could muster to score that night. She would go on to graduate at 17 years old, be Valedictorian of her Class, and then to Burge School of Nursing at Cox Hospital. Her mother’s brother, Dick Brumfield, was once head chef at Cox Hospital, he was tragically taken in a vehicle accident when Kim was just 4 years old. It must have brought great joy to the family for her to go to Cox Hospital to carry on part of his legacy. She would earn her Registered Nurse status at just 20 years old. While in school she was awarded the “Most Outstanding Student” in the training section covering critical care nursing, and that would become the first job she accepted which she held for nearly 20 years. While working in this position she would start her family which would eventually grow to an extended family with bonus children. While holding down the duties as a wife, mother, aunt, sister, daughter, granddaughter, sister-in-law and more, she would find the time to continue her education and get her BSN from Drury University. Many years of her career she drove over two hours round trip to work!
After her 20 years at Cox North, Kim was ready for a change, she applied for a Nursing position at Hulston Cancer Center. There she became recertified for a new position in the radiation department. It is from there she retires today after nearly 20 years, leaving behind many dear friends and coworkers that have worked side by side and helped her for many years. It hasn’t always been easy, matter of fact, many days it’s not.
The author of this story, her husband of 32 years I would like to point out that in the time that we’ve been married Kim's attendance ✅ must be one of the highest percentages of anyone there, as I don’t think she's missed 20 🤧 days of work in her time there. With our move back to the family farm 🐮 8 years ago, this put her back in the situation of again driving 🚗 over 2 hours ⏰ a day beyond her work. And I assure you she has never mentioned it once, (it’s more like 500 times) 😊.
Enjoy your retirement Kim, you’ve earned it.
