Friends and family pay their respects to the late nursing professor
By: SPENCER GLEASON
Editor-in-Chief
Rachael Hoeme sat in the crowd at Busch Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 20. Her family’s beloved Cardinals were playing the Cincinnati Reds. Her sister, Abby; her dad, Mike; and daughter, Sophia, sat and watched the Cardinals hit three homeruns that night to beat the Reds, 8-4.
The score and final were secondary. It was family-time that was more important.
They sat in the same seats that their mom, Mary Herzog, used to sit in — season ticket holders the past three years, with her best friend Joyce Rebore. The two wives and their husbands would sit together and cheer for the hometown team.
“Red October” was Herzog’s favorite time of year.
But this night in September was different.
“There were angels in the outfield,” Hoeme said.
Nursing From The Other Side
Herzog taught in the nursing department at STLCC-Meramec for seven years and at Jefferson County Community College for three years, prior.
She had fourth semester clinical students, in the two-year college program. And for ten years carpooled with Rebore and shared an office.
It was “a hunch” that started the process.
Herzog’s brother had his yearly physical and failed his chest test. Within three days of having stints put in, her brother was out jogging.
Herzog thought, ‘Maybe I should go get checked out.’ Turned out, she had 90 percent blockage.
She had stints put in. Things started to go south. She had bypass surgery. Things continued to go south. Then, in the wee hours of Sept. 4, Herzog died. She was 54.
“People go in for the stint procedure all of the time, everywhere across the United States, in every hospital,” Hoeme said. “You just never really are prepared. She was very young. We’re all just kind of in shock.”
A Caregiver From the Start
Herzog was the oldest of five girls and two boys. Growing up in St. Charles, Herzog worked at the nearby hospital in high school. High school is also where she met her husband. They were high school sweethearts. May 2015 would have been their 35th wedding anniversary.
“My dad gave my mom a ride home. My mom was the oldest of seven and her dad passed away when she was 17,” Hoeme said. “She was in driver’s ed. class and she needed a ride home. My dad gave her a ride. They worked at Pizza Hut together and they just kind of hit it off. My mom was a dancer, so I think my dad — he was quite smitten.”
Nursing was in Herzog’s nature. As the oldest, she possessed the “caregiver” quality that every mom knows. And she loved it.
“She loved her role in the family. She was the top dog and she was there to take care of everybody. It just totally explains her personality and just the type of person that she was,” former nursing student Polly Oesterle said. “I can just see her being the oldest of all of them. And them just looking up to her and I can see her just loving that. She was a leader.”
Herzog had a smile that would “light up the room.”
“Her spirit was so lively. I never saw Mary without a smile on her face. She had a huge smile. Not just smile, but she had the big eyes to go with it,” Oesterle said. “She just had this beaming personality. She was just a beautiful person. She was a light, a true light in this world.”
Living, Loving Life
Herzog loved traveling. This past summer the family went to South Padre Island—more family memories. She had found that there was a turtle hospital there and Herzog loved animals. Her favorite was penguins.
Throughout it all, her motherly quality of education and teaching shined through.
“I think that that’s part of making memories — is teaching — how to leave an impact on the world and trying to better the places that we live in,” Hoeme said.
Even in her passing, Herzog’s name will continue to help teach. STLCC has made a scholarship in her name. Not just at Meramec — but at all of STLCC.
And the Horticultural Department will be planting a tree in Herzog’s honor.
Through Herzog’s name, life will go on.
It is what nurses do best.
“St. Louis is such a big place, that sometimes that individual touch. You don’t always see it,” Hoeme said. “It’s inspiring.”
