Janice White remembers how her tenure with Visiting Nurses Association began. She was a shy 16-year-old and it was the summer before her senior year at Lawrence High School.
“We had a family friend who was their bookkeeper, and VNA had only been open a little over a year at that point, and she asked me if I had a summer job,” said White, who’s now 71.
That summer of typing up physician summaries, stocking medical supplies and answering phones made an impact on the teen. When White returned to LHS in the fall of 1970, she asked office education adviser Mary Gauthier if she could work half-days at VNA for her vocational training placement.
Like White, the home-health organization was young, having just opened in 1969.
“She was a little bit concerned about me working as an on-the-job placement, and thinking about that long term, because VNA was so new,” White said of Gauthier. “They were not for profit, and she was concerned that I would be wasting my talent but agreed that I could work there.”
That gig worked out, too, and White stayed on with VNA after graduation. Meanwhile, coworkers came and went. Offices moved. VNA added hospice services. White held titles such as bookkeeper, administrative assistant, office manager, and finally human resources manager.
White and VNA grew up together. She credits her early days of the job with bringing her outside of her shell.
During that span of five and a half decades, White also became a mom. She raised a family, and VNA offered her the flexibility to be there for her children and attend their activities.
Were there times White considered leaving VNA? Sure, she said; but her parents, Richard and Beverly Cates, instilled in her a strong work ethic. The Cateses were both volunteers and clients of VNA services.
White said she made strong connections with the families and passionate people she worked alongside at VNA. The people – that’s what she’ll miss the most. And even though she enjoyed working through the challenges, she won’t miss jumping through all the hoops required to keep a nonprofit going in the health care industry.
“Just all of the regulations that drive health care and the constantly changing climate and having to adapt and plan ahead and anticipate budget cuts and how, you know, VNA was going to get through that, what we need to do to make it all work,” White said.
She said she’ll “continue to be a strong advocate for VNA, because I believe so strongly in the mission, what we do, the care we provide to our patients.”
White and her husband, Robert, have a large family, including five children and six grandchildren.
“I have grandchildren that I like to hang out with and travel. They play sports, all three of the youngest three do, and we have family on both coasts,” White said. “And so I just thought it was time to retire and enjoy myself a little bit.”
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
