Vaughan RMC holds surprise retirement celebration for longtime employee Geneva Carter

Vaughan Regional Medical Center located in Selma held a surprise retirement celebration for longtime employee, Geneva Carter, on Wednesday, June 23. Carter has been with Vaughan since 1985. But her relationship with the medical center goes back to 1973.

Vaughan Chief Executive Officer David McCormack said Carter has been with Vaughan for about 35 years and is “one of our longest tenured staff members.”

He said she has done “just an incredible job up in OB (obstetrics) taking care of those little babies” and has “probably seen 10,000 babies in her life.”

McCormack said Carter has a great attitude and is a loving and caring person. “You know God makes us all for a purpose. Her purpose was to work up in OB.”

Tracy Merry, chief nursing officer at Vaughan, said, “Geneva has been here since Sept. 10, 1985. She started as an LPN (licensed practical nurse) and has trained a number of our nurses here, even RNs (registered nurse). She has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience and leadership as an LPN to our pediatric unit… She floats all in the hospital and just helps out wherever we need her. I wish I had just a dozen Genevas here. She’s just been a rock to this hospital for a number of years and we are going to miss her truly.”

According to Vaughan officials, Carter was originally hired as an aide for the old Vaughan when it was located on West Dallas Avenue on Aug. 31, 1973. She was hired to the medical/surgical floor that was referred to as the “men’s floor.” She later went to work in the pediatrics department until layoffs in 1983. 

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Carter returned in 1985 as a pediatrics aide. She received her LPN licensure with Alabama on Dec. 4, 1987 and began working as a Pediatrics LPN. From 1988 she worked on the medical/surgical floor until she returned to Pediatrics in 1998. She has stayed in pediatrics since then but was cross trained to OB and continues to work medical/surgical as needed. 

Carter said Vaughan was her second family, and many of her co-workers shared their memories of her at the retirement celebration.

Dionne Williams, human resources director for Vaughan, said, “Over the years I’ve been in HR, not one single employee has ever come into my office and complained about Mrs. Geneva. No one has ever said she was unkind or mean or she wasn’t a team player.”

Carter said she knew a celebration of her time with Vaughan was coming, but did not know when, “So, I really was surprised.” But she said of her retirement, “It’s bitter/sweet. I’m really sad because I’ve been here so long, and there are only a few of us that’s been here as long as I have.”

Carter gives credit for her nursing abilities to Almighty God and Dorothy Hornbuckle, pediatrics director from Vaughan on West Dallas Avenue, for teaching her so much about pediatric patients as an aide and as an LPN. 

She is married with four children and 15 grandchildren.