On May 15, 2004, Pittsburg State nursing student Laci Waterman was set to attend her graduation ceremony. However, the baby she was carrying had different plans, and Waterman instead spent her graduation day in labor. Twenty-two years later on the same date, the baby she delivered will be attending her own nursing school graduation ceremony.
Hannah Gray is currently a senior nursing student and initially had mixed feelings when she found out she would be graduating on her own birthday.
“I was just starting senior year. I had gone to the calendar trying to figure out what date I thought it would be. And I was like, wait. We go on a Friday. It’s got to be that Friday. It’s got to be my birthday. That sucks.”
Her first reaction was to call her mom and tell her the news.
“I was like, ‘Mom, I’m going to graduate on my birthday. That’s going to be terrible. They’re going to be looped together. That’s not going to be very fun.’ And she starts crying.”
“She’s like, ‘No, Hannah, don’t you get it? You’re going to graduate on the day that you were born, the day I was supposed to walk the stage.’ I didn’t connect the dots at first. She did. And so we were on the phone, I was really upset, and she was the one that was like, ‘No, it’s fate, it’s meant to be.’”
Waterman recounted this conversation with her daughter.
“Immediately when she told me, I was just like, the irony of it all was kind of pretty incredible for me. But then also for her, because the story of her beginning is like, aligning with the beginning of her adult career. And it just, it happens to fall on such a special day that is now special for her for lots of other reasons too. It was just pretty awesome, I thought.”
Recalling the story of her daughter’s birth, Waterman discussed her visit to the doctor the day prior.
“The day before my graduation, I had an appointment, and I remember sitting in there, and that was when he had told me, ‘You’re not going to be able to attend your graduation because you’re too high risk. We can’t have you sitting for that long of a period of time.’ And I was in tears. And I begged him, please let me go.”
She explained why this ceremony was especially important to her.
“My graduation, my accomplishment of completing four years of schooling and then my nursing degree, was super important to me, because my grandpa always wanted his grandchildren to get an education, and not many of his children or his grandchildren accomplished that. I was one of the first few, and so it was super important to me.”
Originally, her doctor had agreed that she could attend her pinning ceremony as long as she was pushed in a wheelchair.
“So, that was the arrangement that we had set up. However, I didn’t even get to do that, because I went in the morning of graduation to have one final check, and I had to be rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section. It was really just kind of a lot of emotion. I was sad. I was scared because I was getting ready to bring a life. Ultimately it was all happy, but before all the happy, there were a whole bunch of emotions.”
Gray’s decision to become a nurse like her mom was no coincidence.
“As a kid, you want to be your heroes. So, I always wanted to be like my mom. I wanted to be a nurse. It’s actually funny, because that’s the way my sister’s going too. As a child, that was definitely what piqued my interest at first- I want to be like Mom.”
Although Waterman never had the chance to walk the stage, Hannah plans to give her that opportunity by having her pin her during her pinning ceremony.
After graduation, Gray will begin her new job at The University of Kansas. “I’m really excited, because the job I accepted is outpatient in the ambulatory program. So, I’ll do that for 16 weeks and then get an official placement in a clinic.”
Waterman had one word to describe how she feels about her daughters following in her footsteps: “Honored. I think it may be the best way to describe that. Very honored. Especially with Hannah being my first, and knowing the experience I had with her through some of my final times of nursing school, and knowing that she was following in this process and wanted to do some of the same things. She had the same passions and desires towards people that her dad and I had always raised her to have. I was very honored.”
Waterman explained that she wouldn’t change anything about that day.
“I’m still a nurse. I just didn’t get to walk the stage, but I got something far better out of that day than I could have ever imagined. Hannah’s got a really good heart, and she’s a good kid and she’s going to go places with her dreams, I know she’s going to.”