A Sisterhood of Nursing: Three Beaumont Nurses Follow in Their Mom’s Footsteps

Their mom is dubbed “Michigan’s longest serving nurse.” The nursing longevity gene seems to run in the family.

Julie McClure, Darlene Ditrapani and Laurie Johnson are all Beaumont nurses. Their combined years of nursing experience equal 105.

Dorothe Canty's three daughters, (left to right) Laurie       Johnson, Darlene Ditrapani and Julie McClure, have all       followed in her nursing footsteps. All three are Beaumont       nurses.

Their mother is Dorothe Canty, who retired just last year from nursing at age 89. She graduated from nursing school in 1943 and became a labor and delivery nurse at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak. She then moved to obstetrics nursing for private practice Beaumont physicians.

Of Dorothe’s three daughters, Darlene is a labor and delivery nurse; Julie is a home care nurse; and Laurie is a pediatrics nurse.

Darlene has been a Beaumont nurse for 32 years. “It’s always been like family here,” she says. “I take great pride in being at Beaumont. I never thought about going anywhere else.”

Laurie has worked at Beaumont, Royal Oak in pediatrics for 29 years. “It’s almost as if you’re born into it and you have the intuition,” says Laurie. “I can honestly say I love my job.”

Julie, a nurse for 44 years, retired from Beaumont Home Care six years ago, but stays on as a contingent. “Nursing is all I ever wanted to do,” she says. “I always worked in critical care, but I knew I didn’t want to end my career there, so I went to Home Care. Now I help with education programs.”

None of the sisters felt pressured by their mom to become a nurse, but there’s definitely an admiration in the practice that was instilled in them by her.

“I chose nursing because I thought it was great what my mom was doing and I thought the respect and confidence people have in my mom is fantastic,” says Darlene. “Helping people is an important part of my life now.”

Laurie agrees, “She’s obviously a huge mentor for me. Mom made nursing such a profession. It’s rubbed off on us.”

While the sisters chose different paths in nursing, they share one common thread: a passion for nursing. As Julie says, “If you’re not passionate about it, you can’t be a great nurse.”