Linda Crane lecture "Integrity"

Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal, Jun 2001 by Ciesla, Nancy

This Linda Crane Lectureship was presented at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in San Antonio on February 15, 2001.

I would like to begin by thanking Dr. Tepper and the Cardiopulmonary Section for giving me the honor or delivering the second annual Dr. Linda Diane Crane Lecture. Linda was a very dear friend and colleague of mine. It was a privilege just to be one of her friends, she had so many, in her church, community, and those of you here in her professional circle. I continue to miss the ability to have the informal and sometimes heated talks with her over cardiopulmonary clinical issues, and pulmonary issues as they affect the profession. We always met at CSM for dinner and frequently shared personal ups and downs. We started dinner with a glass of wine, ended with dessert, had something in between, 9 times out of 10 discussing our diets!!!

I thought it appropriate that I begin this talk by sharing a poem, taken from a sympathy card, by an anonymous author.

Life is Eternal

I am standing upon the seashore

A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze

and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch

her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just

where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then some one at my side says: "There! She's gone."

Gone where? Gone from my sight-that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her; and just at the moment when some one at my side says.

"There! She's gone." "There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, there she comes!"

Linda - we know you are with us in spirit, and we miss you dearly.

I have tried to think back to when I first met Linda and honestly, I can't remember exactly. I think it was in 1981 in San Diego at CSM, when I was first exposed to this wonderful Section, and Colleen Kigen probably introduced us.

I don't know why but we just "connected." We were both "northerners" with a mutual love for cardiopulmonary physical therapy. Linda had worked at Hartford Hospital-where I had done my volunteer work in high school, which is just 15 minutes from my home in Newington. Linda also taught at UCONN-my Alma matter. Soon she began speaking at the annual course sponsored by my department when I was Director of Physical Therapy at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Linda brought her expertise in pediatric pulmonary physical therapy, her professionalism, and her devoted personality to the first few courses. She was a role model for my staff. Linda and I continued to correspond and meet at CSM each year. I would frequently bounce clinical questions off her, and often, we came from very different perspectives. Yet Linda's ability to be objective and insightful, yet not critical, allowed our friendship to grow throughout the next 18 years. Linda was a consultant on papers and videotapes I took part in developing and forever brought another point of view to my work. When asked to give this lecture I had a flood of emotions--honor and pride that I had been asked; fear regarding putting together an hour talk on a topic that was not clinically based, something that I have not done before; and a great deal of anxiety after Meryl Cohen's outstanding speech last February on the "Passionate Professional: The Path We Choose." Meryl has been an incredible support and source of resources for this talk. You can see her here with the University of Miami students that attended her presentation. One of my biggest fears-"How am I going to fill these shoes." Well, after much thought and consideration I decided that "Integrity" would be the topic for this talk. Upon researching the topic of integrity I have learned a tremendous amount and thank many of you - my colleagues and friends for sharing "Linda Moments." I was amazed at Linda's incredible integrity regardless of the situation.

My first stop with "integrity research" was our local public library where I found several books on the topic. The first one-Integrity by Stephen L. Carter, a law professor at Yale University, is the basis for much of this talk.' Of course with today's high tech age how could one think of doing a talk without consulting the Internet? Therefore, the Internet was my second stop. I soon learned that "integrity" takes many shapes and forms. If you are shopping, you can visit Sheer Integrity Limited to buy your scissors. There is a Center for Public Integrity dedicated to being "The watchdog in the corridors of power, the most effective public interest watchdog in Washington, DC." There are sites for integrity faucets, integrity entertainment, and integrity music. The Medicare Program Integrity Manual is available. However, when I went to access this site this is what I got (404 Object not found). Are we surprised? As this detailed search did not provide me with the aspects of integrity that I find applicable to Dr. Crane's life I was back to the basics, my books from the public library.