"Nurses are angels in comfortable shoes."
-- Author Unknown

My appendix ruptured the summer after my freshman year in college. This was a big deal back in the fifties; I was in the hospital for over a week.

The nurses made a tremendous impression on me - all starched and serious with little caps, white stockings and squishy, spotless white oxfords.

Beginning in October 2011, I spent 15 months in...