In Memoriam: SHIRLEY SULLIVAN, ET Nurse

Submitted by Anne Durkee-MacIsaac, on behalf of the Southwest Nova Scotia Ostomy Peer Support Group

SHIRLEY SULLIVAN, September 27, 1928 – December 25, 2024, Age 96

Shirley certainly left an imprint on our world, especially with those living with an ostomy and the Enterostomal Therapy Program and her fellow nurses. Shirley was a remarkable person who touched the lives of everyone she met. Her mission was one that made a great difference in the lives of people living with an ostomy including my own even though she wasn’t practicing as a nurse when I first met her but she would always ask how I was doing and was also very reassuring that I would succeed in the first couple years of having an ostomy.

Shirley graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1976 at the age of forty-six. In that first year of nursing, she became interested in the issues and lack of support that people living with ostomies had so she joined the Southwest Nova Scotia Ostomy Chapter, the first year it was founded. They opened the meeting with slides of “The Most Secret Surgery Unveiled.” Shirley became involved in the Chapter and in 1977 the Chapter offered her $250.00 towards her tuition to attend the Enterostomal Therapy Program at Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. During this second year of the Chapter, they had thirty-eight members registered so you can understand why Yarmouth needed an ET. In 1979 Shirley attended the ET Conference in Vancouver.

Shirley was born in Saskatchewan, moved to Nova Scotia at an early age and later met her husband Howard and had two boys, John and Roger, who both still live in Yarmouth. The boys tell me that it was not an easy six months while their mom was in Cleveland, but they survived as teenagers and were so proud of their mother’s accomplishments. Both boys followed in their mother’s footsteps and made their education a priority. Her boys knew that their mom appreciated the simple things in life but the nails, the hair, and accessories had to be just so. One can tell this statement is true by looking at her picture.

Shirley worked closely with the Chapter and often organized workshops for doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and people living with ostomies and their families. She was certainly instrumental in educating all that she met about ostomies. In 1982 Shirley retired from the hospital and went into private nursing. She remains a mark in my lifetime as she sat with my dad during the last 14 days of his life. He had wonderful care, and she certainly cared for me and my personal journey through this loss.

In 1984 Shirley assisted the local Chapter in preparing and implementing “Year of the Ostomy Visitor.” From that year forward the chapter has had an active “Visitor Program.” She also assisted the Chapter in developing a local newsletter and travelled the province attending Ostomy Awareness Clinics. She continued to be active by attending our local meetings when she could. Shirley attended the first meeting I attended in 2001.

Shirley was well known and admired in her community working as an RN and an ET. Shirley Sullivan was the second RN to be trained as an Enterostomal Nurse in Nova Scotia and Lynn Stuart was the first. As you can imagine they shared many experiences in their ostomy world and during their careers encouraged many others to become ETs, such as Ruth Kenney from Halifax.

Shirley Sullivan leaves behind a legacy which we will all remember especially those living with an ostomy and of her involvement in achieving common knowledge of an ostomy in our community, both on the street and in the professional world.

When you loved life fully, as Shirley did you were a good person, a good wife, a good mother and especially a good medical practitioner the changed the lives of people living with ostomies and our community from the time she graduated as an RN to her retirement and beyond.

I quote from her obituary, “I have not left you I am simply enjoying the next stage of my life.”

• A tribute from the Southwest Nova Scotia Ostomy Peer Support Group.