Judy Haas Poler RN

Judy’s first position as a BSN was at the place she started, in the Oncology unit at Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY. She was on the cutting-edge of the developing “Bone Marrow” transplant procedure. She was caring for the sickest of patients and too many of them did not make it. Judy always gave everything of herself to her patients and more so, to their family members as they grieved by the side of their loved ones. Her empathy had no limits, and her caring affection lifted the spirits of all whom she touched. She then took an oncology nursing position at the University of North Carolina Medical Center. She worked 12-hour shifts attending to patients receiving the newest advances for cancer treatments. All day long she kept her own grief within, as all medical professionals are trained to do, and each evening she would allow herself to cry and mourn for the people she had lost. As a mother of her first child and pregnant with her second, she moved to Princeton, NJ and worked as a nurse at the Medical Center. She worked three days in a row, 12-hour shifts, until the day before her daughter Hannah was born.

In 1995, Judy moved with her family to Charlotte, NC where she took a position at Northeast Medical Center (now Atrium – Concord). With four children she needed more flexibility and took a “share-the-care” position that allowed her to work on many different units throughout the hospital. Over 20 years later she was one of the most beloved nurses at Atrium where she won the Nurse of the Year Award, and was recognized as “The Great 100 Nurses of NC” in 2014. The day before she died, she worked a shift in the emergency room. The next day her colleagues, her friends, tried to try to save her.

Since Judy’s childhood she was saving animals. Even the ants and flies were safe in her family home and were gently escorted outside. As Judy’s family grew so did her love for her furry friends, her dogs and cats, and rabbits, even fish and lizards. Judy began adopting and fostering stray animals. She volunteered and eventually became president of the Cabarrus Pets Society in Concord NC. She and her husband Michael moved to a larger property in Concord so that she could care for more animals while she worked tirelessly to find new homes for hundreds of her furry friends. In the early morning of September 28, she ran into the fire, down to the first floor where she saved the lives of her four fur-baby dogs, Neville, Simon, Thor, and Charlie and her three fur-baby cats Lewis, Quentin, and Lucy. She was finally overcome by the fumes and could not save herself. Judy will be remembered as the bravest, and most selfless wife, mother, colleague, and friend to so many. May her memory be for a blessing.