A Minden lady who has been taking care of others for many years is retiring from her job at Minden Medical Center to take care of herself for a while.
The staff of MMC recently honored Dessie Oliver at her retirement for 43 years of dedicated service as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA).
“I thank God for my strength and my legs to do my job for so long,” Oliver said. “It was hard but I made it”.
Oliver said she is spending more time after her retirement with getting her home organized and being more active at Shady Grove Church of the Living God. She also said she’d be traveling some to see her children and grandchildren.
Oliver began her career in 1971 at MMC working as a CNA and loved working there until the day she retired. Her employer was Dr. Sentell, who owned the hospital at the time. Dr. Gary Daniel, Dr. John Hill, Dr. Pittman, Dr. Richardson, Dr. Robert Kemmerly and Dr. McIntyre Bridges were the medical staff members at the time she began. She has seen a lot of changes in healthcare including ownership, name changes for the hospital, physicians and employees come, go and retire.
“You understand everything changes,” she said.
Oliver said she has received much joy from taking care of the patients.
“You have to love people to be a CNA,” she said.
In highlighting her career she mentioned Dr. Warren Lambard delivered his first set of twins at Minden Medical Center. They just happened to be her twins.
“Dessie also told us that she was working on the day she went into early labor with the twins,” MMC CEO George French said. “That’s some dedication.”
MMC staff and patients will miss Oliver and her commitment to doing a great job, her love for people and the joy she received from being a CNA, according to MMC’s leadership team, including French, CFO Jim Williams and CNO Donna Carter.
“Minden Medical Center has been blessed to have her,” French said. “She was working at MMC before we began in Minden. We knew she was a gem. She always did her best and did all she could for her patients. We are going to miss her smile. She set a high standard for CNAs and was a great teacher and mentor for new CNAs. Dessie was certainly one that led by example.”