Gentry's Journey
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Gentry's Journey
From ER Nights To Inspired Lines
A rotating blue star on Birmingham’s skyline. A nurse walking into night shift with steady hands and a pen that won’t sleep. Kathleen Fentry joins us to share how a life in emergency rooms, ambulances, and volunteer firetrucks turned into poems that honor grief, grit, and everyday grace.
We trace the path from her first EMT classes in the early 90s to the front nozzle on a training burn, where a fire chief taught her to feel the split between safety and danger with one ungloved hand. Kathleen opens up about the family she found at Caraway Hospital, why that iconic blue star became a beacon for tired night-shifters and homebound travelers, and how closing those doors reshaped a community. She reads the heart of her Caraway poem and explains why nurses aren’t just task-doers but advocates, translators, and witnesses who hold a family together when the room starts to tilt.
Kathleen also takes us behind the lines of her book, Inspired Thoughts: waking in the night to write, turning a coal miner’s lost sunlight into a prayer, and capturing a great-granddaughter “chasing mommy’s feet” across the kitchen floor. We talk about her recognition at the International Society of Poets in Las Vegas, the next poetry collection on the way, and outlines for new novels and short stories—including a nudge to help a grandson publish his own. Along the way, we explore resource gaps between hospitals, why she trained for field medicine after a head-on crash, and how first responders learn to compartmentalize without going numb.
If you care about nursing, EMS, firefighter life, Birmingham history, or how ordinary moments become timeless lines, this conversation will stay with you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a beacon tonight, and leave a review to help others find these stories.
Good evening, everyone. This is Carolyn Coleman. Welcome to Gentry's Journey. We have a poet today, and her name is Kathleen Fentry. And she's going to come on and introduce herself, give us a little bit of her background, and we will go from there. Hello, Miss Kathleen. Hi there. Thank you for coming on Gentry's Journey. Thank you for inviting me. It's uh gonna be a pleasure to be here. Absolutely, it is. Um now you were born and raised in Birmingham.
SPEAKER_00:That's correct. I now live in the Bessmer area.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, good for you. Okay, so and you are a nurse. I'm a nurse. Yes, yes. Okay, what a coincidence. Well, that is a coincidence. Um, we didn't discuss any of this when we met, and that's fine. Um, I'd like to have a surprise or two, okay? Okay, now tell us about being a volunteer firefighter, EMT.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's something I've done um uh 30 years ago. I started, I went and got my, well, actually, it's been in the early 90s, so yeah, about 30 years ago. Went to uh Besper State Tech, got my EMT license. I was already a nurse working in the emergency room and decided that because I was having to give instructions to the medics and the EMTs that were coming in, and I thought, you know, how can I know what they do if I don't get out there to actually do it? So I decided to go to school and stepped in about elbow deep and went and got my EMT license and started working on the ambulance and loved it. And it was just the pay was ridiculous, it was so low, but you know, it was what I was doing on sideline, so it was something to do. Sure. Um, and you get to see uh you just really don't realize how hard these guys and girls work until you're actually out there in the field with them. Um they have a bad habit, or maybe it's a good habit, of blocking down. They go on a call, and when the call is over, of course they work on, you know, one call at a time. And when that call's over, they may go sit in station for hours, or they may not even make it back to the station before they're called out on another one. You may have a life, you may have a death, you may have a wreck, you know, it's just it's crazy. Uh, but this is what they do, and then they come home and they shut their feelings down to face the family because they don't want to bring their work home with them, and therefore it causes a lot of problems because they're shut down and everybody thinks, well, they're mad at me or they're not discussing with me, and it's just their way of coping. Uh, but that's why I went in to find out what was going on there. Um, I've done EMS stuff for years and still worked in the emergency room, and uh, we have a volunteer had a volunteer fire department here where I live, and it's about five miles away. And they just had the basic EMT, and of course, I was a nurse and an EMT also, so I volunteered my time with them and learned how to work on the fire apparatus and drive the fire trucks and you know, really get to see the fireside of everything. And uh remember my first call when they had we had a what they call a control burn, had an old abandoned house that needed to be burned down, and so they take us Saturday for training, and uh I went with them and geared up in all of my firefighter gear and went in with the fire chief, and uh he was also a friend of mine, and so we walked in the door, and I'm on the front of the nozzle helping put the fire out, and then he takes me through and he says, I know you've never done this before, but take your glove off and feel the difference. Put your hand low and feel the heat, and I did, and he said, Now put your hand high, and I raised my hand up as high as I could reach, and to feel the difference in the temperature was amazing. Um, I I just never realized that he said this is why when you're in a fire, you get down low to the ground because of course heat rises. Um just little tidbits that make the things that you already have learned to make them make sense to you. It brings that puzzle together, it does. So I worked with the fire department and volunteered with them and worked in the emergency room and worked on the ambulance. So I got a little bit of all of it, and it has really given a lot of color to my life. Um, you know, you really learn how people adjust, and I think it has helped me adjust. And of course, there's poems in the book about firefighters and about the EMS and about uh Caraway Hospital where I worked, and about the star that was on top of the building and what it means to us. Um, so I mean now I think I've covered a lot of all of my bases.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, let me ask you this. Now, when you say you worked at Caraway, did you work Birmingham or Bessemer? Both, but I started I started Okay. I want to know about the star at Big Caraway.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, the star was actually it started out uh as a Christmas light. I never would have guessed it. Never and it was the the school of nursing that was at Caraway, and they put up the star as a Christmas light, and it was so well accepted by the community and by everybody that that's how it became the beacon. Um, and then they changed and went into not just a decoration, they left it up year-round, and then they went and built the uh actual rotating star that was on top of the building for years and years. And uh, but like I said, it was the beacon of light, the beacon of hope. The you know, when you could look out when you were coming into the city of Birmingham by airplane, you could see Caraway and you knew you were almost home. That's true, that's very true. And it gave you a direction to go. You know that you were headed in the right direction if you saw the star. Okay. Uh, and with us coming in to work, and I work night shift primarily. So with us coming to work at night, we knew that that was our beacon of hope. That you know, when you saw the star, you knew that you were almost there. And we had a family connection that, like there is no other to work at Caraway, was a family.
SPEAKER_01:I heard that. I heard that the people who worked at Caraway, they felt as though they were family. I've heard that over the years. I myself have never worked at Caraway, and um I was at St. Vincent's and one of my co-workers got some not so good news, and so naturally she was not able to drive, and so I just I just told the my coworkers, I'm taking her, you know. So, I mean, what else do you do? You know, as I'm taking her so she can be with her family, right? So um I hadn't really never kind of been to Caraway, and so I but I knew the direction to go, and she told me, uh, you're gonna make a ride right here, and then you're gonna see the star. And so when you said that about the star, that's why I said I want to know more about the star. And I got her in, I got her there. We got to the emergency room. Naturally, I did not part, and when we uh when we entered the doors to the emergency room, her family was there, and I just passed her over to her family so they could have that family time together. And you know, I just hugged her and I left. Um, and so, but anyway, it it worked out. The situation did work out, but you know, when you're at work, we're just we're human like everybody else, you know. You get some news that's not so good, you've got to put family first, you know. So that's where I was like, well, I'll take her, not a problem, you know. She's in no shape to drive, and you know, you wouldn't who would want her on the road in that shape? No, no, you just don't, you know. Uh so when but when she said, When you go over, you'll see the star. And I was like, Okay, I never thought about it like that, you know, because you're driving, I'm on the road. Um, and so I mean, but like you said, when you fly in, you would see the star. Um, you know, so Caraway was known for his star, that is for sure. But I thought it had a different meaning. So it's I education is always good, is it not?
SPEAKER_00:It is, but uh, it's like the uh excerpt that I put in the book that says, thank you for all uh to all of my co-employees, my blue star family, oh the love and experiences we shared over the years. Thank you, Dr. Robert Careway, for the opportunity to be a part of the Blue Star family. This star has been a guiding light, a welcome home, and a part of the Birmingham skyline for many years. And I hope to convey a small part of the meaning too many. And that's when I wrote the poem. Um, and of course, it's in the book, but if you'd like to hear it, I can yes, I would love to hear it. Okay, the big blue star. I look and wonder where you are, that guiding light, that big blue star. It led us in to work at night, it helped us deer deal with fear and fright. Our family bond was strong in love, was strength in love. We gathered from the star above. All day and night, the star would turn, we'd wait and watch and work and learn. We cried the day they closed the door, our lives were changed forevermore. And though the star no longer shines, our bow, our bonds are strong within our minds.
SPEAKER_01:That's beautiful. Um I remember when basically Caraway, I guess, guests closed their doors, and we had an influx of uh nursing, nursing staff, and probably other staff as well to come into um several of the local hospitals. Um and it was kind of heartbreaking. Um, that's that is how they had to transition because it was history in the making, was it not? It was. It was history in the making, you know. But one thing about nurses, it and people had put in so many years there and they loved it. It's not that they were there out of obligation, they that's where they wanted to be.
SPEAKER_00:You either came and you stayed, or you came and you left. Okay. Um, there was basically no in-between. It's that was it. You came, and when you bonded with this family, it was family forever. That's great. So that's great. Um, none of the other places have I ever worked that I feel the love and the care and the bond that we had at Caraway.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. That's great. Uh, it's it's good to be able to have fond memories, especially when you have been employed. Um, there are some people, um, you know, in any walk of life, you know, I don't care what your profession is, you need to enjoy and love what you do because when you don't, it adds days, weeks, months, and years on to that. And it's a more of a drudgery than an enjoyment, right? So I really hate when people say, I hate this place, I can't stand it here, you know. And I'd be like, You you sort of see their temperature rising, and you'd be like, you need to find something else to do, you know, because that's not healthy. Uh-uh. It's like go somewhere that you're happy, yes. Yeah, you're you're not, you know, nobody has you chained here. You are, you know, you can you can stop at any time because you bring that bad aura over to other people, and they're just trying to get through their day or enjoy their day and do what they have to do, right? Yeah, so it's not fair to other people, but you I and I can't stand uh negative Nancy. I cannot stand a negative Nancy, male or female. They they just they they basically can try or attempt to just suck the life out of you, they drain you, they are very, very draining, and uh, you know, and it makes it like why are you coming toward me? You know, I mean, is there a magnet pulling you toward me? Because I truly will turn it off because I don't need you uh in my space at this point in time. Let's just let's just do our work and let's just go through get through the day. Now, let's get back to well, let's start with your poetry journey. What put you on that path?
SPEAKER_00:I have been writing poetry since childhood, basically. Um, and it's just a release for me. Uh, another thing is there are times that I just wake up from a dead sleep, pick up my pen, and begin to write because I feel like the words are given to me. That's the reason I called it inspired thoughts. Okay. I don't have to work at poetry, it's truly a gift. That's great. So uh that's a blessing. You give me a subject, and most of the time I can come up with a poem, you know, within I'm gonna honestly say within minutes or sometimes within days. Uh my husband and I were driving down the road and he said, I've got one for you. I said, What's that? He said, Um, talking to God. And I said, Okay, what do you mean, talking to God? I said, you know, we do this. And he said, No, I mean I want you to write about talking to God. And I said, Okay. And uh he said, just, you know, when you think about it, he said, I just thought it was a subject that we'd, you know, that I'd throw out there. I said, okay. Well, we continue to drive down the road, and I reach over and pick up my pen and begin to write again and closed the notebook and laid it down on the thing. He said, Uh, what are you doing? I said, You wanted a poem, and I just wrote it. I mean, and it was that quick and that simple. So uh, and then I I read it to him, and you know, it's like, wow. He said, You just done that? I said, Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. I mean, it has to be a gift. Now we have to say that. It is, uh, and that is what you're saying to us. It's a gift for you, it's a gift, and you're utilizing it. Um now, how many published works do you have?
SPEAKER_00:I have uh Inspired Thoughts is the only book that I have written. Um I have probably 15 or 20 that I have done with uh International Society of Poetry over the years that have been published. That's great. And they have you know put some of my works in anthologies, but Inspired Thoughts is my first book, but I've got another one on the way.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. Yeah, you never stop. Don't stop, do not stop. Um, now you said you received a lead crystal trophy. Yes, that was tell me about it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I have a lead crystal trophy. I went to Las Vegas, Nevada to compete with the International Society of Poets in, I believe it was 2007, and uh came up as one of the finalists and have a lead crystal trophy that's got a little, it's in the shape of a hand, uh, like from the elbow standing up, and in the palm of a hand has a little ball, it's a lead crystal ball that has the world engraved on it. Okay. And all of y'all, seven continents and all, and it is one of my prized possessions.
SPEAKER_01:It should be. You're as you say, it's international, International Society of Poets. How did you find out about this?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, I used to go on the website for international poetry, and uh they had competitions, so I would enter my works and you know they'd come back and it's like, oh, this is good, and we're gonna publish it, and it's like, okay. So um then they had the competition and invited me to come compete. So I did.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, if you don't try, but this ain't nothing piece of failure but a try. Right. So you have to you have to do it.
SPEAKER_00:They were offering uh, I believe it was like a twenty thousand dollar publishing contract, and I thought, what a way to get my work done. I didn't make it to the top, so I didn't get the contract, but I did get the experience and the exposure. And that's that is sometimes that's priceless, yes. Uh, just to be able to go out and compete with you know world-renowned people. That's good.
SPEAKER_01:So that is very good. Maybe new friends, absolutely, and you will you will connect, you will meet new people, and some is for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Uh so yes, you can and you do, especially when you have a shared goal. Right. Absolutely. So what are you working on now?
SPEAKER_00:I'm working on the second book. I've not completely decided on the title of it. My thoughts are across the horizons. And it again is another book of poetry. Um, and I've got uh over 200 more poems ready to go in it, and I'm in the process of doing the uh proofreading, making sure that everything's set like it needs to be and getting it ready to send off. Okay. And then I've worked on outlines for three other books that uh I I've got the outlines, so I'll just they're just gonna be chapter books. Sure. Um but you know, different subjects, just uh I don't want to elaborate too much on them yet, but they won't be poetry.
SPEAKER_01:And that's fine. That is fine because sometimes you start off in one direction and it totally turns into something else. So I get it.
SPEAKER_00:Um I don't look to ever give up my poetry side, but the other um little, you know, small short stories and um just like one of them, you know, the two of them, actually three of them, all three of these, are in the direction of novels, of mysteries. Um, but then we're talking some short stories, and I've also gotten uh one of my grandsons writes small short stories, and he's written them since he was like six or eight years old, and he's like 18. Uh, but they're you know, they're cute little three or four-page stories, and I would love to see if we couldn't get those and uh put them in a book for him and let him start his journey.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I'm sure you can. There, there's a publisher waiting for you. There is someone. I think the day we met, there was a publishing company there beside you. Yes, it was Rocky Heights. Okay, okay. So, you know, you know where to start or where you can possibly start. You can always it always is questions about anything. Um, yeah, you know, compare and contrast, but it can happen. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:It definitely can happen. And Rocky Heights is a great company to work with. Matter of fact, uh, I initially published with Palmetta Publishing, and they were gonna do my marketing and such, and uh then I ran into Rocky Heights and have I really have high regards for them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's great. Once you have um a great experience, you want to kind of stick with it, right? Right, not to say that the other is not, but this is the experience you have, and hey, I'm I'm gonna stick with what works for me.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so that's good. Now you are a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother, and a friend. Exactly. That speaks a lot. It does. I have a lot of pockets full, and that's that's wonderful. That is absolutely wonderful. Oh now you attribute your inspirations from your 40 years of service. I'm not gonna say work, your 40 years of service in the medical field, because there's a lot going on inside the hospital uh with uh people who are sick and the ones who are not. So, yes, you can get that from that. So, what was one of the first things that you saw that inspired you to write some of your poetry? Oh which one stands out the most?
SPEAKER_00:That that's really hard. Um the love and the laughter. I had um you know, grandkids that I've uh raised, and some of their biggest to me, their biggest heartbreaking stories are stories in my book. Um and the I've got stories of military because I've been associated with military all of my life. Okay. I was not in the military, but uh father, brother, mother, daughter, husbands. Um, so I mean, you know, I've been associated with military. So I wrote about military life a lot. Um and then of course the grief. I lost my mom and I lost my dad. My daddy was my best friend, sure. Um and uh so I mean when I lost them, the uh the sides of the poems for the grief to help others to be able to cope with it, um, and to know the journey that they went through. Okay, so it uh this little book covers a lot of different areas. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sure it does. Um most people still think nurses just give shots. No, they answer the phone. Uh if they only it is it is so much deeper than that. Exactly. That does if that's all we did, it would be wonderful, but people need more from us than an injection and answering the phone, right?
SPEAKER_00:Um their support system, we're their advocator, we're their protector, um, we give them faith and hope when they feel that they have none. True. We're their security blanket, um, we help them to heal and we hold their hand when they pass.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00:Um they always say, you know, oh, how can you be so cold? How can you be, how can you, you know, get used to all of the death and the dying? You don't get used to it. I do not learn to help them pass through, too. Um I remember my very first child to pass and you know, it never gets easier. Um, I can cry with the best of them. Yeah. If you lose a loved one, I can help you cry. I can help you get through it, but you know, and then there's days that you when you lose somebody, you're strong for the family, and you walk off to the bathroom and you cry your heart out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I have had your face and come back. Uh-huh. Yeah, I've I've had those moments from time to time. Um, it's always somber when someone passes. Now, let's just be honest with that. It's always somber. Um, but you are the one to help pull the family through or be a bridge for the family, right? Um I remember one gentleman, he had no respiratory reserve, not right. So I could only have the mask off. I mean, like three seconds, you know, but he was still alert, which is you know, it's hard. He was alert, he was oriented, he knew what was going on, and so his wife asked me, would I shave him? Because he looked so scruffy. I said, I think we can make that happen. And I said, Now it's not gonna be the best thing. I tell everybody I'm not a barber, but hey, we're gonna get it done. So, and I did, I did it when she was not in there, right? When she came in and she saw it, she said, Well, that that looks pretty good to me. And I was like, I did the best I could. It's the little things that some that help, but he wanted some water, and she said, Oh, let me give it to him. And he looked at he looked at her and he shook his head, no. Um, and so she got so upset, she went outside the room. I gave him his water and I went and got her. And I said, It's not that he didn't want you to help him, he didn't want you to see how weak he was, right? Because it takes a lot for me to help him get his breathing under control after he takes a sip of two of water, and he didn't want to see you to see him struggle like that, and she was like, Why? I just didn't know. I said it's hard to explain, right? But you know, he's still your husband, you're still his wife, and that seemed to have given her a little bit more strength, right? Because he was not um an older gentleman, okay. So you you know, it's just so many ways you have to approach families and their loved ones. It's it's so it is as varied as we have personalities out there, exactly, but you get really close to them when they are at their most vulnerable times.
SPEAKER_00:You sure do, you know.
SPEAKER_01:So um, it is not for everyone, and everyone is that is a nurse, you know, doesn't necessarily need to probably be one. I mean, let's be honest, I've been doing this 40 years as well as you have. Uh right. It's not, it's not, it's not for everyone, it's not for everyone, you know, because if you can't demonstrate compassion, what are you doing here? Because that's when they need you the most. Exactly. That's when they need you the most. Um, you can get through the critical pieces and parts of it. I'm not saying that's not important because I've done critical care. Um, so but you have to focus on that patient, and a lot of people don't want to give it that time to to do that. I'm not bashing nurses, I'm just saying, and it's not every nurse, it's just that you have to put that patient first, right? You just have to put them first. That's what we're there for. Uh, we can talk about a lot of other things later, but let's make sure the patients are okay first. And that has always been my thing. Uh, let's make sure everybody's okay, then we can see what what's you know what's around the corner about everything.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Well, that was what that was one of the things that drew me to nursing to start with, is uh I started to work as a monitor tech and saw uh Dr. David Geere at Careway actually ride the stretcher into the OR while he's doing compressions on the actual heart. He's got his hand in this man's heart in his chest, and you know, he's keeping the guy alive while they roll down the hall going to the uh operating room. And I thought that's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01:So I mean not not play with the guy's heart, but no, I I understand exactly what you're saying. When you find your true calling, you just find it.
SPEAKER_00:So I started working in C V I C U. Was my very first um job as a nurse, was working in the open heart unit at Princeton. And I was on my way to work one night and my sterile whites and um two cars hit head on in front of me. The car immediately in front of me went off the side of the road to keep from being involved in the wreck. And here I am in dress whites, and it's middle of the night, and uh I get out of the car thinking, what do I do? You know, yeah, I feel like a bystander, I'm a nurse and I've got all this training, and it is gone to the wayside because I don't know what to do. Well, it ended up, all of the patients made it, they flew Life Saver in and got, you know, and you know, the the child and the dad and flew them one to children's and one to I guess UAB, I don't remember now. Sure. Um, and so that's when I decided to go do my EMT stuff because it's like I don't want to just stand on the sidelines and be a bystander. I want to know what to do next time, and that's why I said uh how can you lead guide and direct if you don't know? And that's when I said earlier that I wanted to know what they did in the field so that I could help guide them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it makes sense because when we're in the hospital, we are in a somewhat controlled environment. We know where to go get our supplies, we know who to call to bring us some supplies, but when you're in the middle of an accident, there is no crash card. No, you know, there is no supply room, so I would be just like you. Um, I mean, I have stopped for accidents as well, and um, it wasn't as bad as yours, but um, so you can kind of be a voice of reason to calm people down to let them know that help is on the way. Um, we are here for you. You will be surprised at how many people stop to help you, you know. Right. Uh, you know, so you keep them calm, and then when um the fire department and the emts get there, you just walk away because hey, you yield the scene to them, you know. So that's what we do, and um, with the and you know, back then there were no cell phones, so no, so check somebody stop at the payphone and call for help, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, what else? What else was there to do? It's called drive right on up the street and let them know, you know, but we use the resources that we had, and sometimes some people just want someone to stay with them, you know. Don't leave me. I've heard that so many times, even in the hospital. Don't leave me. And I would like, I will stay here as long as I can. Granted, I have another patient that's sick. I need to chat with them, but I will be if if I leave you, I will be back as quickly as I can. So you make that contract with them, and you try to keep that contract, and then you win their trust by doing so, right? Yeah, no, so one thing for sure, nursing is never a dull moment.
SPEAKER_00:No, and like I said, the with the trauma unit at Careway and the ER, I worked, you know, several ERs. I mean, I've I've covered basically every hospital in Birmingham.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's good.
SPEAKER_00:So, you know, that's good. The um just I guess some of my learning experience, um you know, when you're talking brass tacks and the bare necessities, I was working at Cooper Green in the emergency room.
SPEAKER_02:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:And that was a learning experience to say the least. Um, because you know, people that don't have insurance and they put off the care till the very last minute. Uh-huh. And honey, I saw some diseases and some things that I've never again seen since. Sure. And uh, so like I said, it was an experience. I've, you know, worked St. Vincent's and I've worked uh the Bessmer care way. And um it was definitely not my favorite place to work. Uh but it had its pros and cons. Sure. Um, that's all I'm gonna say about that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, and I'm I'm with you. I mean, anyone who's ever worked anywhere, they they understand, you know, you know, it's anything can be that way. It has its pros and its cons. Um when you come from a facility that has, let's say, other state of the art equipment, right? Okay, and then you go to another facility, you take for granted everyone basically has the same oh no, they don't equipment. And I have found out the hard way. Um, I'm like, where is this? And they were like, No, that's not how we do things. I was like, why you you need y'all need to get some state of the art equipment up in this camp? You know, you need to be doing you working people really uh you know hard on the I said, I've been doing when I was an LPN student, I had a heel run bed. I said, I'm used to pushing a button for my exactly instead of turning a crank. Yes, we're talking the same language here. I started to walk out that day. I just was like, this is not for you, this is not me, you know. But you it everybody, but it's but at the base of everything, at the core of everything is still a patient, right? And you are humbled by some of what you have to learn. You are, you're very humble, but you still treat them in the same mechanism, the ivy fluids, the antibiotics, you know, the turn to cough, the deep breathe, the machinery. But it it is um an experience. And you know, it's just like anything else. Oh, I'm just you know, I'm just used to getting in the car and pranking it up and going on about my business, you know. So when the car doesn't start, you'd be like, No, what's going on here? Why are you acting this way? You know, you're having this talk. You know, but you know, um, what they used to call it, it had a phrase, nursing is um basically innovation to infinity because we're gonna figure out a way to make things work, right?
SPEAKER_00:So like the old saying goes, I've done so much with so little for so long, I can almost do anything with nothing.
SPEAKER_01:That is so true, that is so true, you know, that is so true, but your inspired thoughts and you're saying that it comes from really the work that you have done as a nurse, right? Um, so if you had not been a nurse, do you think you would have become a poet? Probably great.
SPEAKER_00:Um, just because there's so much more. It's life, it's you know, um experiences with the kids, the grandkids, the military families that I've you know been associated with um the fire, the EMS uh coal miners. I've got a son that's a coal miner, and I have a poem written about him. Well, I mean, not necessarily him, but about his line of work.
SPEAKER_03:Sure.
SPEAKER_00:Talking about, you know, that he knows that, you know, when he dies, he's heaven-bound because he's done his time underground. Okay. So uh, you know, that that's not necessarily the truth, but in so many ways it is. Yes. It makes you learn to appreciate sunlight. It does. Um, I had a friend of mine that uh they were asking something one night about, you know, what time did the sun go down? Said, you know, we know when sun is uh sunrise is, but what time is sunret uh sunset? And he laughed and he said, Well, for me every day it's at 2 30. Like, what do you mean at 2 30? He said, I hit the elevator and go underground. It's dark.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and you know, I did not know for the longest. Like I said, if you don't work in a certain profession, um, or a certain whatever you want to call it, per se profession or field or career, you don't know what someone else goes through. I had no idea. They got on and basically an elevator went down for about an hour and then took a train, ride to their job site for an hour. So I said, Oh, so you guys don't even do eight hours of work. You can do for four. Yeah, when you think about it, that is what we do. You know, we work for four hours because we have to pack up, get ready to get back on the train, ride for an hour, get on the elevator, go back up for an hour, you know, but still they are working basically in a silo.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. And uh, but I mean, to see the pictures and such of what it looks like underground, I mean, they've got their own cities down there.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that I haven't seen, but the people that I have that I know uh have loved what they do, right? And that's all that really matters, you know. It makes your day go better, it makes you feel as though you've accomplished something. So as long as you enjoy what you do, that's all that matters. It does not feel like a job if you're happy, and that is very true, you know. That is very true, and so on here you put you will continue to write as long as your inspirations continue, right?
SPEAKER_00:Um, I have uh my God gives me a lot of these words to put on this paper. Um I plan on that lasting forever. Uh the kids and the crazy things that they do, and the grandkids, and I've got the one of the newer poems that go in the second book is caused, uh, is called Chasing Mommy's Feet. And that's where the great-granddaughter is uh crawling around on the floor. You can just hear her little hands slap the floor, and her mom's you know playing with her, and she'll go to one side of the room and the baby will take off and chase her, and she'll go to the other side of the room, and Violet chases her again, and then you know they pass the bedroom door going into the kitchen, and when she gets there, she turns and stops and she sees somebody else's feet, so she turns and goes through the kitchen door and starts chasing daddy's feet. Okay, so uh I wrote a poem about that, and that's basically the summary of it. It's chasing feet, okay, because that's what she's doing, exactly. So, as long as I have inspirations like those, I'm gonna keep writing as you should, because you won't be happy if you do not. No, so uh that's a beautiful thing. The kids get the thrown up hand. I'll start if I'm sitting down with a notebook and pen in hand and I start just feverishly writing, and one of them walk in, I'll throw my hand up, and you know that that's the signal of hold on a minute, because I'm in the middle, and if I don't finish this, I'll forget it.
SPEAKER_01:You will, uh, and yeah, that that means stop. That throw it up hand means stop. I got an inspiration going on right now, and it really, once you interrupt that, if you don't write it down, you are forever chasing what was that, what that thought was.
SPEAKER_00:Right, and so they've all learned when that hand goes up in the air, and I've got ink pen on paper, wait for just one more minute.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, absolutely, absolutely. So now, Miss Miss Kathleen, we have enjoyed you, but tell us where we can get your books, okay, and how we can find you on the different platforms that you are on.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I have a website, it's Kathleenfinerty.com. I am on Facebook at Kathleenfinerty, and it's only one in Infinity. Um, there are several out there, but I'll try to leave a copy of the page, the front page of my book, so you'll know that it's me.
SPEAKER_02:Sure.
SPEAKER_00:Um, let's see. The books are at Amazon.com. You have to type in Kathleen Finerty and then Inspired Thoughts for it to pull up. I'm working on that. Okay. Books a Million have them. Barnes and Noble have them. Of course, you still have to type in the Inspired Thoughts and Kathleen Finerty to find it at Barnes and Noble. Rocky Heights Book Nook. Um, and I've got a uh QR code on my site, on my Facebook, that takes you directly to the Rocky Heights Book Nook to get the one there. I'm trying to get the you know, the way to get them sent straight to Amazon and straight to Barnes and Noble. So uh I will be adding more of those to my Facebook site and to the website as soon as I can get it. For some reason, my computer skills are not exactly what they need to be to get all of this connected, but I'm working on it.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say it just takes time, it just takes time because you don't want to rush it because you want it to be right, okay, and that's okay because if they go to your your Facebook, they can ask you for a book, correct? Exactly. I have those you guys can communicate that way, you can go communicate that way, correct? Exactly. So um, so that's good. Can they leave you a message on Messenger? Always okay, okay, and that's another way that they uh that you guys can get her poetry, which is great.
SPEAKER_00:Sounds good to me. Okay, but like I said, uh uh I do uh signings at different locations. Um, the next one that's coming up is I believe Canceled Coffee in Aniana, and that's on the 7th of March. Um I've got some other things coming up. I know that one's a definite. I know the Montgomery Expo, it's fifth edition, and it's if I'm not mistaken, the 26th and the 20 to the 28th of March. All of this is gonna be on my Facebook. That's what I can already say.
SPEAKER_01:Um that will be on your Facebook, correct?
SPEAKER_00:But as I find new sites to sign, I will be posting them. Okay, that way they can come see me and get a book, or they can go to Barnes and Noble and get a book, or Book Nook and get a book, or Amazon. And uh any of those places right now. They've got the ebooks, they've got the paperbacks that uh it's I believe a print on demand. So if you request it, they'll get it. Rocky Height actually has copies um in their possession. You can go to their book nook, it's over in Homewood. Um, and you can go over there. And that's the other thing. I will be signing books at the Homewood Library, and that's uh April the 12th.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, that's on a Sunday, right?
SPEAKER_00:It's on a Sunday from 3 to 4:30. Okay, and uh, so it will be at the Homewood Public Library, and uh if there's anything or when there's other things come up, I'll post them on my website. And that's my Facebook, I'll post them everywhere.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. I mean, how else will people get in touch with you? That is what you're supposed to. That's your job, too, other than writing beautiful poetry. That is your job as well now to keep people informed where you are and what you're doing. Well, I tell you, it has been a pleasure. I do appreciate you coming on and sharing um your story, um, your book, your business, your brand with Gentry's Journey. It has been a pleasure to meet you and get to know you better.
SPEAKER_04:I have enjoyed it thoroughly.