Remembering One Nurse 9/11

As a young nurse, Christine Egan immigrated to Canada from Hull, England in 1969 as an experienced RN with two years under her belt.  She was very close to her brother Michael, and he also made the move to their new country - to Montreal.

Courtesy of Ellen Judd, Christine's
partner

Instead of working in the more convenient and populated areas of Canada, Christine decided to work in Northern Canada - one of the most desperately needy areas in the field of medicine ...now known as Nunavut.  She also worked in First Nations communities in Northern Manitoba. 

The needs were great, the challenges many.

She was very popular, not only with her co-workers but also her patients and within the communities she served. 

Beloved by everyone,  she was passionate about providing health care to those in the northern regions where it is so desperately lacking*. 

She also set her own standards high.

Her constantly inquiring mind drove her to obtain her nurse practitioner's license and then on to pursue studies in anthropology and health sciences.

In 1999 she achieved a PhD in Community Health Service.

She was committed to health and education in Nunavut.

Christine was working with Health Canada as an epidemiologist when the call came from her brother in New Jersey.

It was her love for family and caring as an R.N. that took her to New Jersey in September of 2001.

Her brother Michael, now living and working in the USA,  was planning a trip with his wife to Bermuda to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.  Christine offered to care for their son -  her 16 year old nephew with Down's Syndrome, while they vacationed.

She arrived a couple days early, and on September 11th, she accompanied her brother into New York City.

Christine was supposed to meet an old college friend there, but because her friend couldn't make it, she instead went with her brother up to his office on the 104th floor of the WTC south tower for a morning coffee and a peek at the magnificent view of the city from such a great height.

September 11, 2001 is forever etched in everyone's heart and mind, but never so much as those who received those last phone calls from their family and friends.

The last word from the pair was a phone call from Michael to his wife:

Michael's wife said he always called her no matter where he was and without fail he called her on the morning of September 11, too. His wife had been watching the horrible breaking news on the television and was relieved to get that call from her husband.    

"You made it!" she gasped with relief as she picked up the phone.

"No, we're stuck," replied Michael.

And while still on the phone with her husband and watching television as she spoke, she watched his building suddenly collapse.

She doesn't know if he got to hear her last words to him. "I love you, darling."

Since Christine's death on 9/11, a scholarship fund has been set up in her name, to be awarded to nurses who are also committed to working in Canada's north - in Nunavut. 

Twenty-one awards have been made to 17 people - those with deep roots in the north, mainly Inuit - who would stay in the north and be committed to continuing with the work so dear to Christine's heart.

"Chris' scholarship is a comfort to all of us involved in it because it is so close to what she cared about and the way she lived," Judd [her partner] said.

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*Read here at Asystole's blog and also Dr. Ottematic for first hand accounts of nursing/doctoring in Nunavut and Northern Manitoba.