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DAUGHTER WALKS TO HONOR HER MOTHER

By Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, October 10, 2009 7:44 PM CDT

Katrina Tate and her mother, Cardelia Hart, were close.

Special to The Commercial

“It was me and her,” Tate said. “We were like sisters — partners.”

Growing up as an only child, Tate said she remembers paying the bills and buying groceries while her mom went to work.

Later, when Hart was diagnosed with breast cancer, Tate said she was there for support.

“We went to chemo together. We went shopping for wigs together,” Tate said. “The only place I didn’t go was the operating room.”

Hart died Oct. 3, 2008, and in memorial this year Tate held a 3-K walk in front of her home last Saturday.

About 30 people attended the walk held at Regalia Drive off of Middle Warren Road, Tate said, including Hart’s friend Vera Murray.

“She was very cheerful and loved a good joke,” Murray said. “She didn’t like people pitying her.”

Murray worked with Hart at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in the Intensive Care Unit. Both were nurses.

Several other co-workers also joined the walk, Tate said.

Amy Smallwood, another ICU nurse, said she didn’t join the walk, but knew Hart as a nurse with great concern for her patients.

“She was very straight forward with her patients and yet very caring with them,” she said.

Hart later moved to a bed in the ICU as her condition worsened.

“We all took turns taking care of her when she was really sick,” Smallwood said.

For 15 years, Hart went through bouts of cancer discovery, chemotherapy, remission and then a new discovery, Tate said.

Tate said her mother walked the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure held in Little Rock every year.

“I think that’s why it was so important to me,” Tate said. “She did the Susan every year.”

Tate said she did not register anyone or raise funds for the 3-K she sponsored. It was just a special day to honor her mother’s memory.

She said next year she plans to raise $1,000 for a scholarship to a University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff nursing student.

“I think that’s my plan for next year,” Tate said.

Tate lives with her husband and three daughters in her mother’s home.

She said her mother supported her interests and pushed her to try new things. “She always introduced me as ‘This is my daughter. This is some of my best work’.”

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