Sheryl Ann Smith

The stream of visitors to the riverfront home in Brewster, WA, began after Sheryl Smith delivered her last lecture January 18, 2017, at the Omak Campus of Wenatchee Valley College — relatives, bird-watchers, teachers, students, neighbors, singers, actors, readers and nurses, scores of them. They all wanted to say goodbye to a midwife who had delivered nearly 1,000 babies, to a nurse who had cared for thousands of patients, to a woman who had touched countless lives through her work, her volunteering, her community activities, her friendships. Doctors found cancer in her bile duct two years ago and operated. She underwent chemotherapy until early this year, and entered hospice in her home with terminal biliary duct cancer. Sheryl Ann Smith died Friday, February 3, 2017, cared for by former nursing colleagues, friends and family members. She was 59. “I’m so ready,” she told her husband, Mike Lundstrom, and mother, Betty Jean Smith, on Thursday, February 2, 2017. “I’m so happy.” The medical profession found its way into her life at birth October 12, 1957, in Chicago, IL, where her father, Floyd, was completing medical school. Ms. Smith’s younger siblings — Terry, of Polson, MT, Larry, of Pateros, WA, and Jeff, of Puyallup, WA — are all physicians. Dr. Floyd Smith, who practiced in Seattle, WA, died when his daughter was 11, and her mother moved her family back to Brewster, WA. Sheryl Smith graduated from Brewster High School in 1975 and entered the University of Washington. She earned two Bachelor of Science degrees — one in psychology, the other in nursing — in 1981. She trained and nursed on staff for six years at the University of Washington Hospital and later worked at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, WA, where she met her future husband, a photojournalist. She decided to pursue nurse-midwife certification by entering the graduate program at the University of Minnesota. She earned her master’s degree and diplomas from at the American Midwifery Certification Board and the American College of Nurse-Midwives in 1991. Sheryl Smith’s midwifery practice began in Ontario, OR, where she had privileges at Holy Rosary Medical Center. She returned to Brewster two years later, practicing first at Family Health Centers. She joined Main Street Health Associates in 1994 and delivered babies there until 2005. As an on-call 24/7 midwife for more than ten years, she missed only two deliveries — one in the car en route to the hospital and the other by an emergency medical technician. Reflecting on her relationships with first-time mothers, as well as those who came back, Ms. Smith said each was short, but intense. “Every one was different, even those who had more than one child with me,” she said. As a floor nurse at Brewster Hospital for seven years until 2012, she also made a “hospital” room in her home for her 95-year-old mother-in-law, Roberta Lundstrom, and for her husband, who was partially disabled from a stroke. She also worked part-time for Okanogan Family Planning for ten years. Music filled her home, as well as venues outside. She played piano for St. James Episcopal Church in Brewster. She sang alto in the Okanogan Valley Orchestra and Chorus. She played mandolin alongside her husband, who played Dobro, an acoustic slide guitar. For an OVOC Spring Musical, she sang and played a nun in “Sound of Music.” For Chelan Valley Players, she starred in “Menopause The Musical,” produced “Christmas Story” and “I Love You; You’re Perfect; Now Change” and was publicist for “Annie Get Your Gun.” As an educator, her nursing classes at Wenatchee Valley College in Omak, WA, turned into a full-time appointment that earned her tenure after three years. When a visitor became startled hearing cries coming from a classroom, a standard front-office explanation was, “Oh, that’s just Professor Smith’s birthing lecture.” She loved teaching and her students, one of whom knitted her a pussyhat, which she wore in hospice in solidarity with nurses at the January 21 Women’s March. “There are a lot of us out there,” she said. “If I could have, I’d have been out there with them. We rock.” In addition to her mother, her husband and three brothers, she is survived by nine nieces and nephews. She requested that no public memorial service be held. Her body will be cremated. She also asked that any donations in her memory be made to the WVC Omak Foundation, P.O. Box 1374, Omak, WA, 98841. Her wishes were that any funds be used for Omak nursing students.

Tributes

Sheryl Ann Smith

October 12, 1957 - January 27, 2017