ELDER WISDOM
THE ANGEL IN WHITE
Natalie Casey
Last year Casey, 82, a nurse since
1945 at the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center–Passavant, was
caring for a World War II veteran who
was not expected to make it after
major abdominal surgery. She had
his wife bring in an old photo album,
and then Casey sat down with him,
flipping through the pages. “I told
him my husband had been in the
service,” she says. “We talked about
it for days. And pretty soon he was
on the mend.”
After decades of tending to the
bodies and souls of patients, Casey
has found that the best medicine
doesn’t come out of a pill bottle. “I
found out that if I took a genuine
interest in my patients, it took their
minds off what they were in the
hospital for,” she says. “Nursing isn’t
just delivering medicine and chang-
ing bandages. If you listen to some-
body, it’s surprising how much their
outlook can change.”
THE STREET HERO
Larry Schneckenburger
He’s only 51, but to the guys at Ladder Company 120 in Brooklyn, Schneckenburger is “The Old Man.” That’s because he’s one of just 200 firefighters over
age 50 among a11 11,400 people in the New York City Fire Department. He
started as a volunteer with the department 32 years ago and relied on every
moment of that long experience in March 2006. That’s the day he looked out
the firehouse door and saw two punks standing on Watkins Street, right in
front of Public School 298, firing automatic weapons at each other. Between
the gunmen, a young boy and girl—terrified and screaming—huddled with their
book bags. “I’ve got to get to those kids!” Schneckenburger yelled to his buddies. He ran into the hail of bullets, grabbed a fistful of each child’s shirt, and
yanked them behind a parked car. During a brief lull as the shooters reloaded,
he hustled the children up the school steps to safety.
“Everything that helped me stay calm and think rationally that day came
from years working as a fireman,” says Schneckenburger, who was awarded a
medal from the city for his heroism. “Would I have reacted the same way if I’d
been a rookie? I don’t know. I think experience had something to do with it.”
