'Everybody Was Taken Care Of' Despite Nurse's Heavy Workload?

New Haven Register › March 05, 2008

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Summary

WEST HAVEN -- Veteran nurse Lenora Erickson not only put in a 40- hour week, working the night shift at a New Haven hospital, she often spent her days off as a much-in-demand private duty nurse. But she never let this deter her from raising her three children. "When she was working nights, I didn't see much of her, so she would slip me notes under my pillow and I would write her back," recalled daughter Carol Allen of North Branford. "On the rare occasion she had a night off, she and I would sit on the bed and talk girl stuff. After she retired, we liked to go shopping. And then we would go to lunch. She loved Georgia Hots with the works, and we often swung by Sweeney's By the Sea for them. My friends envied me because my mother never raised her voice or cursed. She was wonderful to everybody."

Son Robert Erickson of Orange started college late in life, and his mother was by his side every step of the way. "It was very tough but she encouraged me and always told me not to give up," he said. "She edited all my reports. When I graduated, she was ecstatic and we rented an Italian-American club and had one hell of a party."