This is a busy month of religious and holiday celebrations. This past Saturday my wife Gerri and I were invited guests to attend the Friends of Nursing Christmas Luncheon. While I had football on my mind, I easily consented to attend the luncheon at Eddie V’s new location in the DTC. It turned out to be a very wise decision. As we entered the facility we were greeted by Victorian costumed Valor Christian High school carolers that commenced a wonderful occasion.
First, and foremost, I love nurses and respect them so much. They are the angels of the past, present and future. While I have great respect for doctors, where would we be without the gentle caregivers who answer the buzzer for help and assistance, for those angels that check our foreheads and take our temperatures. Nurses, male and female, hand the tools to the doctors to perform their miracles.
The Villager Newspaper has a 40-year history with this group going back to the beginning, sending our photographer Jim Pilon to attend their holiday bazaar at the Denver University Phipp’s Mansion Pavilion. Jim, who just turned 90 in September, is currently in Minnesota visiting his daughter Karen, and husband Jim. He now resides in Estes Park with his daughter Paula. Visiting with him about the event, he vividly recalls the wonderful nurse events that he photographed. Yes, he recalled LaFawn Biddle, who was one of the founders of the organization and was at Eddie V’s Saturday luncheon. Other stalwart pillars and patron sponsors were Brenda Olson, Greta Pollard, along with Regis University and Loretto Heights School of Nursing.
Eddie V’s was the site for this special tribute to nurses and nursing. Kudos to this new DTC restaurant in the Old Canterbury Inn location that opened during Covid-19. Patrons relate tales about the wonderful food and the busy afternoon bar trade. There is a spacious parking lot a few steps from the entrance.
The restaurant is elegant, the staff were dressed in white tuxedo jackets and the service was perfection, serving the tossed salad, filet mignon steaks, scalloped potatoes, and grilled asparagus topped off with flaming Banana Flambé’ dessert with ice cream. It was a fund-raising event for nursing scholarships with a silent auction. Bless president-elect Melanie Wallace and her team for such an elegant location and menu. The restaurants care and service made me a future patron.
Following the delicious meal with a rose bouquet centerpiece we were all invited to the lounge area for a program of festive sounds of the season. The short program was “over the top.”
Dr. Saundra Valey, a practicing Psychotherapist, played the baby grand piano in the lounge corner and she was remarkable with perfect key touch and musical selections. She states in the program…” Music keeps me sane.” “We all sang “Silent Night” one of her selections. Radio pioneer Rick Crandall read some holiday messages along with reading a “Celebration of Lights” written by Rabbi Rick Rheins of Denver Temple Sinai. It is so poignant that I asked for permission to reprint the reading. The lighting refers to Chanukah that starts this December 18-26.
Crandall, like The Villager, has been a longtime supporter of the organization and now serves as Executive Director of the Colorado Freedom Memorial.
We came home smiling with a few silent auction items as keepsakes of the splendid event celebrating those awesome nurses.
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A Celebration of Lights In The Jewish Tradition by Rabbi Rick Rheins, Denver Temple Sinai
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2: Now earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.
3: And God said, “Let there be light” And there was light. 4: And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.
At the beginning of creation, God first created light. Note that the sun and moon were not created until the fourth day of creation. So, what was the original light? It was God’s eternal light of hope and faith. It is the eternal light that we were instructed to kindle to shine in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. As it is written.
20: Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. 21: In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons were to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come. (Exodus 27:20-21)
To this day, a Ner Tarnid, a perpetual light, is always kept on in a synagogue. It is placed over the Ark, where the Torah scrolls are held. God, of course, does not need light. We do. So, it was when the Jerusalem Temple was desecrated by those who sought to erase our ancestral faith and hope, a miracle of redemption kept the lights shining. The lights of the menorah can be physically extinguished but cannot be spiritually snuffed out as long as we have faith and hope. That is the origin of the celebration of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights. It is a celebration that good people, those who give of themselves to help others, are like menorahs that shine goodness and holiness. There are no lights that shine greater than those from nurses who care for others. May God, the creator of light, bless nurses and their loved ones, and all others who bring the light of hope to brighten this world.