LYNCHBURG, Va. – We’ve all heard the saying: You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your siblings.
“We’re there together usually at least two shifts a week, we’re there together, so you know the jokes come along. We still pick on each other,” said registered nurse India Stump.
The Stump sisters, India, Cheryl, Nicole and Blair, all work at Centra Lynchburg General Hospital, helping patients on the same COVID-19 intensive care unit floor.
"We’re really lucky to be able to work together, especially in an environment when you require so much team work and you need someone there for you all the time,” said registered nurse Nicole Stump.
India and Nicole are the oldest, both registered nurses, who pay homage to their mother, who is also a nurse.
“She has always been like the caregiver to everyone,” Nicole Stump said.
The younger sisters, Cheryl and Blair, are unit coordinators on the COVID-19 ICU floor, who know from a distance when their sisters need them.
“If I know she’s going to do something I already have it ready for her,” said unit coordinator Blair Stump.
Cheryl shares a time when India was overwhelmed because her patient on a ventilator wasn’t doing well.
“I was like, ‘What do you need, what can I get for you?’ So, you can tell she was drowning but she needed someone to say, 'What do you need?’” Cheryl Stump said.
And having family to lean on is what everyone needs in these uncertain times.
10 News reporter Magdala Louissaint asked the sisters, “Could you see yourself going through this journey without your sisters?” Nicole answered, “Now that we’ve done it? Probably not … that may be a downfall for some people, but when I show up and see my sisters at work, I know it’s going to be a good day. I’m like, I have this many people here for me.”
Blair and Cheryl both have hopes of becoming registered nurses soon and following behind their older sisters.