Having worked as a nurse for more than four decades, Cindi Goron knows it’s important to recognize the sacrifices and work these critical caregivers provide. That includes giving them a proper send off at the end of their lives.
The Joliet resident and other members of the nearly 500-member Chicagoland Nurse Honor Guard have been doing that for the past several years, providing a free ceremony during a visitation or funeral service that incorporates important symbols of the nursing profession.
“It’s a simple ceremony, but every element is very symbolic, like the Nightingale lamp,” Goron said. Florence Nightingale was known as the “lady with the lamp,” walking the hospital at night to tend soldiers injured in the Crimean War.
During the ceremony, which is done by volunteers, one nurse reads the nurses’ prayer, another reads the Nightingale pledge (inviting all nurses present to join in) and yet another performs the final call of duty.
The name of the nurse is spoken along with the phrase “call of duty,” followed by the ding of a triangle. That sequence is repeated two more times. An honor guard member then says “We hereby release you from your duties. We’ve got it from here.” The lamp is extinguished if it’s a candle or turned off if it’s run by a battery, and given to the family.
It can be an emotional moment.
“You could hear a pin drop — it’s so quiet,” Goron said. “It’s the dinging of the triangle that goes right through you. It reminds me of taps for a military funeral. When someone plays taps, you can’t help but get choked up. What a movement it makes in your heart.”
Participating female nurses wear a white uniform, nursing cap and blue cape with a red lining, similar to capes worn by nurses on the battlefield, who would flip them over their shoulder to be seen so they wouldn’t be mistaken for the enemy, and so neither side would shoot at them. Male nurses wear a white shirt and pants. A white rose also is part of the ceremony and stands for the “purity and compassion that a nurse has” as well as the sense of cleanliness the color white symbolizes.
“When we walk in, there’s an audible gasp. It’s a very traditional uniform that they don’t see anymore,” Goron explained. “The hardest part when I joined this was to find a white uniform. When you go to a uniform shop, it’s all scrubs. It’s hard to find a white dress. We purchase our own capes. There’s a lady who makes them.”
Goron, who has worked in the obstetrics unit at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox for 42 years, has participated in about two dozen ceremonies. She joined the organization after the 2022 death of her sister, Sandy Roots, who was 11 years older and had worked at Silver Cross for 50 years.
“She was my sister but such a huge part of her life was being a nurse. It just felt like I wanted to do something to honor others,” she shared.
Someone who’s participated in well more than 100 ceremonies is the organization’s president, Charlene Gallion, a registered nurse from Morris who has been a member since 2021.
“One time I had two in one evening. I had to go from one funeral home to another,” she said.
The first honor guard was formed in 2002 in Kansas. The Chicagoland Nurse Honor Guard was founded in 2019 by Connie Girgentri in memory of Frank Aguilar, a 32-year-old nurse murdered in 2019 in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood in a case of mistaken identity. At the time, Aguilar had a job with Misericordia, which aids people with disabilities.
“Connie knew some Chicago policemen, and they said we should do something for that guy. At the time, we were the only chapter in Illinois,” Gallion said. Other chapters now include the Northwest Illinois Nurse Honor Guard, Forest City Nurse Honor Guard in Rockford and Central Illinois Nurse Honor Guard in the Springfield area.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the chapter’s first years were somewhat quiet. “We did (ceremonies) electronically via Zoom,” she said. “We also had one tribute that we videotaped so it could be played at a funeral home.”
In April 2022, a funeral – and honor guard ceremony – took place for Aguilar in the chapel at St. Xavier University, where he earned his nursing degree.
Gallion said his family was “so moved” by the ceremony, and she was able to give them copies of the paperwork used at the event. “The cameraman recorded us walking in and recorded us walking out. It was very moving,” she said.
She described the organization’s purpose this way: “Our mission is to honor those that have gone before us, and we don’t want anyone to go alone. Our mission is also to provide support for the family – to let them know their loved one was recognized and honored today and always.”
Gallion also is pleased that “nurses are finally getting recognized and acknowledged” thanks to the honor guard. “The military does this and the fire department, but nurses also give up family time like those other services do.”
She tries to go to as many ceremonies as she can, given that she’s still working. “I’ve served all of Illinois. I’ve been to Springfield, to Skokie. I’ve helped northwest Indiana. I’ve gone as far as East St. Louis, Sycamore, Belvidere. I’ve been all over,” she said. The Chicagoland chapter covers Cook, Will, Kendall and Grundy counties, and she helps with Livingston and LaSalle counties.
“I love how reverent it is,” Gallion said, adding that ceremonies affect members too. “I tell them that this changes you. You’re there to help the family, but this changes you. … I’m just so moved to be a part of this. I know we call it an honor guard, but the honor is really ours.”
When a ceremony is requested, word goes out on the group’s private Facebook page with a time, date and location that’s within 50 miles. Although the chapter has lots of members, work schedules and other commitments mean most ceremonies have about four or five participants, Goron said, although they can have 10 to 12. The group coordinates with the funeral director and whoever is leading the funeral service.
Families appreciate the ceremony, which is only 10 to 15 minutes long. “It’s not a burden for the family to add. It’s a brief yet very symbolic presentation,” Goron explained.
“They will tell us they didn’t realize the impact the loved one would have until after the ceremony … seeing the nurses stand in tribute to them. It makes them realize they belonged to a larger nursing family. It brings a sense of gratitude and peace to the family during that difficult time,” she said. “It really is an expression of gratitude from us as nurses to the nurses that came before us.”
And the ceremony is just as meaningful to the honor guard.
“When you stand with fellow nurses, you just feel so united and committed to the bigger profession,” she shared. “Nurses spend their life caring for people to ease their suffering, and I think when you have one die, you just want to help the family get through that grief and offer some sort of peace.”
The caps and capes also come out during a pinning ceremony for nurses graduating from Joliet Junior College’s nursing school. “They’ve been inviting us the last couple of graduations. We stand out because we’re in capes and caps,” Goron explained. “We stand with them and lead the Nightingale pledge with them. We’re starting to infiltrate the younger generation.”
Goron is committed to spreading the word about the organization, both for families who would like a ceremony and for other nurses, retired or still working, to join. The only requirement is a white uniform and a cape. “Every once in a while we’ll have someone who said their best friend passed away and they want to be part of the honor guard. So we have a few that people can borrow for a memorial.”
Although the organization’s services are free, donations from grateful families fund the purchase of lamps, battery-operated candles and the white rose placed by the nurse being honored. They also pay for caps, which nurses don’t wear these days.
“I have my original cap, but it was so yellow it wasn’t going to work with my uniform,” Goron said. “With donations we’ve received, we’ve bought caps. Every cap is different with each school of nursing.”
To request a service or to learn more about the organization, contact Gallion at 815-272-377 or TLCNHG@gmail.com.
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
