Honking horns wish ChristianaCare VP a happy retirement

Michele Campbell greeted the very first patient to walk through the doors of the newly built ChristianaCare Hospital's Newark campus in 1985.

"I know that his first name was George," said Campbell, 65, standing outside of her Wilmington area home. "I took a picture with him."

Her colleagues at the hospital created a slide show illustrating her more than 43 years of service there, and included a picture of that day. It was a token of their appreciation for her tireless work, and it was only fitting that the day after she retired, at least 50 former colleagues, including doctors and nurses, gave a farewell to the woman who greeted the first patient.

Before traveling to her house, well wishers gathered outside of the Einstein Bagel Shop in the Shoppes of Graylyn shopping center and taped congratulatory posters to the sides of their cars. They created colorful signs wishing her well. Not even a brief downpour of rain could stop them. Shortly after a line of at least 30 cars, with windows cracked, some raising their heads of out sunroofs holding posters, rolled down her street honking horns and waving as she stood in front of her home.

Delaware sees 6-day decline in coronavirus hospitalizations

"She is really a ChristianaCare treasure," said Dr. Stephen Pearlman, who worked with Campbell. "She was foundational to creating the whole culture of safety within the organization" Pearlman added. "When a situation such as the COVID-19 arises a lot of things that she had put in place in terms of how we monitor patients' well being and processes, et cetera, is fundamental to how we deal with a crisis like this."

Campbell collected flowers and bottles of champagne and wine from her former colleagues, whom she had not seen while working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. She cried with her two daughters, Jennifer Sonson and Lisa Campbell, the latter of whom is also a nurse, and posed for pictures. Normally, the tradition for someone retiring from the hospital would be  a tea party there, but social distancing wouldn't allow for it.

"It was really heart warming," Michele Campbell said. "Typically you have a tea party at Christiana, and that was worrisome because people wouldn't be able to come and remember how we worked together, and today there were people here that I worked with twenty-thirty years ago," she said. "This actually was fun and very surprising.

Delaware will reopen campgrounds at state parks on Monday

Campbell, who would have made her 44th anniversary working at the hospital in August, had an impressive assortment of different roles for ChristianaCare. Most recently, she held the title of Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety. She served as the nurse manager for the Medical Intensive Care Unit, which happens to be where coronavirus patients at the hospital are currently stationed. She started several nationally recognized and award-winning  programs that the hospital used to oversee patient safety over the years.

Campbell's daughters gathered gifts and placed them on a table under a tent in her front lawn Friday. They had their own ideas of what they wanted mom's retirement to look like.

"I just want my mom to relax and be stress free. I want her to go on vacation when she can," Lisa said. 

"I want her to read an go on walks with me," she added.

Newly retired, Michele Campbell plans to divide her time between the beach and her Wilmington area home, and traveling, including an annual girls trip with her daughters. She already had to cancel two trips, one to Texas and another to the Bahamas because of the pandemic.

"I will be building relationships and friendships again," she said. 

Contact Ira Porter at 302-324-2581 or iporter@delawareonline.com