DENVER (KDVR) — Sunday is a special Mother’s Day for a mom and daughter duo who are serving and helping families at HealthONE Denver Hospitals.
FOX31 spoke to the Cordova women who are sharing their inspirational story.
After spending decades at Presbyterian St. Luke’s, the medical center has become Brenda Cordova’s second home.
“In two months, it’s going to be 33 years,” she said. “I’m in charge of the patients, anything that goes into the patient’s room, food-wise.”
Starting as an overnight supervisor three decades ago, Cordova worked her way up to the patient services manager position, making lifelong friends at work along the journey.
“I say PSL is my second family,” Cordova said. “I have my home family, but I also have my work family and I also share my home family with my work family.”
Cordova’s work family got to meet her daughter Cady before she was even born.
“I was pregnant and I used to say, she’s the kitchen baby because everybody got to experience my pregnancy when I was pregnant with her here at the hospital and that’s why I chose to have her here at the hospital,” Cordova said.
Cordova delivered her daughter Cady in room 306 at PSL, and Cady has a lot of memories of spending time with her mom at work.
“I do remember coming to [her] work and … being like intrigued where my mom worked, and seeing the ins and out of the hallways, and things like that, and just being here in the setting,” Cady said. “It just made me feel special being here.”
The special feeling of being close to her inspirational mom at PSL led Cady to start working at the medical center even before graduating high school.
She began as a valet parking attendant, working her way up to the concierge office, then as a patient care tech. She is now a nurse at HealthONE’s Swedish Medical Center.
“Of course, my mom inspired me, she inspires me every day,” Cady said. “She works so hard and just seeing her be here, do all the things she does for not only patients but her coworkers and the kitchen family here.”
In a full circle moment this Mother’s Day, Cady is now working at the hospital while expecting her first child.
“She’s having a little girl, so it’ll be like mom, daughter and then our grandbaby. It’ll be really exciting,” Cordova said. “I want to make sure Cady knows that this little bundle of joy not only needs love, but she’s going to need guidance to make sure that she navigates her emotions, her feelings, so she knows what her worth is. Because early on, we reminded our daughter all the time what her worth was and how to navigate her feelings.”