Patricia Selles Weiss

My friend and traveling companion, an inspiration and a hero for those who knew her. She was something of a pioneer in Neonatal Nursing, co-authoring a textbook in the early 70's on the role of the nurse in neonatal intensive care. I met her in 1997 as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner in New Mexico. I was always happy to find her covering the nights I worked-things went well when she was there.

Pati had a passion for seeing the world. She traveled to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Russia, just to name a few places. After seeing the wonderful scrapbooks she made (always within a week of returning home), one night I said "Pati, I don't care where you are going next, I'm going with you!"
A few months later we boarded a plane bound for New Zealand. It was a wonderful experience and inspired me to continue to explore the world. We planned a trip to Papua New Guinea the next September. Unfortunately she suffered a near-fatal bout with pneumonia in March of that year and we canceled the trip. She never recovered fully enough to risk the long flights of international travel again.
Pati died on October 13. She had taken care of the important people in her life, her parents and her two children, and knew that they would all be OK. When she became ill and was put back in the hospital we think she decided she had lived with pain long enough. She was ready to move on to the next realm and continue her travels there. She stopped by her picture on my bulletin board on her way out that day to say "see you later".