Born in Massachusetts, Gloria Nickerson had once been an air traffic controller followed by 23 years in the US Army in which she last held the rank of Major. Gloria was a paratrooper during Desert Storm I and, following her return to the states, discovered her marriage beyond repair. She then learned that her eagerly awaited military pension would not be forthcoming, as believed, due to the fact that she had accepted an exit bonus from the Army; said bonus being peremptory. Some tight-fisted legislators on Capitol Hill had tacked a prohibition onto a very different type of Bill forbidding the payment of both a military pension and an exit bonus. This fact was not explained to military personnel. The bonus money was spent and there was Gloria, no pension, no husband, and a diagnosis of the 'military disease' of Hepatitis C. She was also losing the home she had been renovating. Believing that when the going gets tough the tough get going, Gloria enrolled in and finished nursing school in late 1999. Within a few months of becoming certified, Gloria's health began to seriously deteriorate and she could no longer work as a visiting nurse.
But Gloria kept up her correspondence with many people and continued to fight for veteran's rights and improved health care for veterans. She appeared on the Mall in DC on 29 May, 1999 at the Rolling Thunder XII Health Care Rally where she spoke of her negative experiences with the Veterans' Administration. The opening line of this web site is from the following letter:
29 March 2002
Director
Veteran's Administration Medical Center
2300 Ramsey Street
Fayetteville, NC 28301
Dear Madame,
I have provided you a copy of this email, not because there is anything you can do about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, but to show you the glaring difference between the treatment of these prisoners and the American Veteran using the Fayetteville VAMC. My response to the email stated "I just received a notification of needed appointments at the Fayetteville VAMC (one of which will assist in determining the degradation of my eyesight from diabetes) and the appointments are dated 2003. Maybe if I appeared for my appointments in shackles and handcuffs, I could get the immediate treatment as the prisoners serviced by our government."
This, Madame, is something over which you have control; truly a management issue. I have recently been advised by my primary care provider in Eagle Clinic to have an appointment at least every six months to "stay in the system." I do not want to "stay in the system." I want to get well. I want the best and most effective insulins stocked in your pharmacy (Humalog, Lantus) which I currently purchase at drugstores. I want an alert and informed gastroenterologist to administer treatment for Hepatitis C, which I currently pay for myself.
I don't want the offer of driving to Durham VAMC for that which should be made available to me locally. What should a disabled Veteran do? Hitchhike? I certainly don't want consult requests to be ignored, nor do I want sub-standard treatment, less than that being provided to prisoners of our government. I think this is shameful, and an insult to my 23 years of service to my country.
What, Madame Director, are you going to do?
Respectfully,
Gloria F Nickerson
MAJ, US Army (ret.)
On the 7th of July, 2005, several of us received a letter from Gloria stating that she had checked herself into the VA hospital earlier that week and that she was losing blood somewhere internally and that doctors could not determine which organ was at fault. On the weekend of the 13th of August, Gloria was back at the VA hospital and was released on Tuesday August 16 to return home. A close friend drove Gloria to the grocery and fixed her something to eat before leaving for the night. Gloria phoned her aunt Marilyn and spoke briefly of an operation doctors wanted to perform. On Friday the following email was sent :
"My name is Joan. Gloria Nickerson is my sister. I sadly have to tell you that she is in a coma in the Cape Fear hospital in Fayetteville. She was taken off life support last night and is not expected to recover. My family and I are having her brought home to be buried when the inevitable occurs. She will be buried in the military cemetery in Bourne Massachusetts. I am waiting for the call from the hospital now. They have no idea as to how long she will last."
Gloria's close friend, Peggy Bradley, arrived from Georgia a few hours later and summoned Father Ed Burch to administer Last Rites at 9:10 PM Friday 19 August. At 9:20 PM, Gloria slipped from this life into eternity.
Peggy was holding her hand.
I'll miss the almost-daily words of encouragement, the funny pictures and jokes, the letters signed, "Love, Glo," or "The Divine Miss N." "Glo" was the sister I never had, the friend I had lived too far from when in Florida. From many we have known and had to leave behind there has been that occasional email or phone call and then, later, nothing. Very likely there was nothing there at the time we were together and out of sight was very much out of mind. But Gloria was different and she stayed near to people she knew and made the effort to share experiences and thoughts and feelings.
She was a girl called Gloria.
I'M FREE
Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free
I'm following the path God laid for me.
I took His hand when I heard him call;
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day,
To laugh, to love, to work or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way;
I found that place at the close of day.
If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared a laugh, a kiss;
Ah yes, these things, I too will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life's been full, I savored much;
Good friends, good times, a loved ones touch.
Perhaps my time seems all too brief;
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your heart and share with me,
God wanted me now, He set me free.
Author: Linda Jo Jackson
Copyright 2018 by Alix of Augusta. All rights reserved.