Veronica Scott-Fulton felt absolute sadness as she saw her mother lying in a hospital bed.
While returning from a revival in Birmingham, Ala., her mother was in a devastating car accident just five miles before she would have made it to the safety of her South Carolina home.
The news the doctors shared in May 2013 was incomprehensible: Her mother likely wouldn’t survive.
Until then, Scott-Fulton’s life had pretty much been ideal.
She grew up always feeling loved by her parents and her extended family.
She had always done well in school and had wonderful jobs as a health-care professional.
She had a husband who worshiped the ground she walks on and they have three bright and beautiful children.
And she had surrendered her life to God.
But, at that moment and for weeks afterward, there was only sadness.
“Here I am in the prime of my life and I’m going to lose the person who means the most to me,” said Scott-Fulton.
The accident happened a little more than two weeks before Scott-Fulton started her job as vice president of operations and patient care services at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
Like nearly everything in her life, Scott-Fulton’s career choice had been influenced by her mother, who had spent her life loving children, even those who weren’t hers.
“What will I do without her,” Scott-Fulton asked herself.
Making a difference
Growing up in the small town of Kingstree, S.C., Scott-Fulton and her three siblings watched as their mother took in foster children for years.
These were emergency cases, where the children stayed until their parents could be found. They’d show up at all hours of the day, sometimes 2 or 3 in the morning.
“Our house was a train station,” she said.
Some of the children were sad, some were depressed, some were OK. All were loved by her mother.
“She wanted those kids to have a warm place to stay where they would feel safe,” Scott-Fulton said.
But, as a teenager, Scott-Fulton didn’t understand that. “I just wanted them out of my house,” she said, with a laugh.
When she and her siblings were teenagers, it got to be a bit much. She told her mother, “Really, mom? We’re tired of all these kids coming through the house.”
Soon, her mother stopped being a foster parent.
It was years later when Scott-Fulton was pursuing a degree in sociology and psychology that she discovered the value of what her mother was doing. Realizing the importance of children feeling love as they grew up and how it shaped the rest of their lives.
At some point in her 20s, she wanted to be like her mother and help children, too, especially those who were suffering.
Connecting with a ‘nerd’ from high school
When Scott-Fulton was back in her hometown over a holiday break from school, she ran into a former high school classmate at the post office.
They never really connected at school, she said. She was popular and he was a nerd. “I just didn’t have anything to do with him,” Scott-Fulton said.
As is the polite Southern way, she invited him to her family’s home while they were both in town.
“In his own awkward way, he just said, ‘Whatever,’” she said.
But somehow they ended up going to dinner. She still wasn’t interested in him, but he began to pursue her. He visited her at her college and sent her letters.
In time, she told her mom, “He is a really nice guy.”
She realized the value of sharing her life with someone with whom she has a connection and also someone who brings something different to a relationship.
“We love the Lord, we love our parents, we love our children and we love our country,” Scott-Fulton, 45, said of the commonalities she shares with her husband, Dwight, an engineer with JEA.
They have two sons, Scott, 14, and Phillip, 13. And then there’s the baby of the family, 12-year-old Maci, whom Scott-Fulton describes as “the baby diva princess as special as special can be.”
She understands the evolution of a marriage, another lesson her mother taught her.
When the two attended a high school class reunion, their classmates were surprised to see them together. But after spending the evening on a dinner cruise with the couple, their former classmates understood the connection.
“You find out everybody’s a nerd in their own way,” Scott-Fulton said.
Even her? “No,” she quickly answered, while laughing. “No.”
A shift in focus
Scott-Fulton was busy building a career, enjoying success at hospitals in Atlanta and Miami before coming to Jacksonville.
She had done whatever it took to be successful. Scott-Fulton had collected two bachelor’s degrees, two master’s degrees and a doctorate along the way.
But about 10 years ago, she realized she was focused too much on her career and not enough on the rest of her life.
She found the answer by following her mother’s example again. “I surrendered my life to God,” she said.
Scott-Fulton believes that put her life in perspective, helping her realize she could still have a career and do it in a godly way.
A turn for the better
After her mother’s accident, Scott-Fulton’s father signed over power of attorney to her so she could make health-care decisions. Her siblings supported that, as well.
She was the health-care person in the family. She spoke the same language as the doctors.
Whatever needed to be done, Scott-Fulton would get it done, they said. They knew she was like her mother in that way.
What they didn’t know was the fear and the sadness inside her. “I don’t really know how to show that I’m afraid,” Scott-Fulton said. “That’s a tough one for me.”
She didn’t let her family know how she felt when doctors told her they didn’t think her mother was healthy enough to survive the series of surgeries she would need.
Scott-Fulton just kept telling surgeons her mother was strong.
But when she was alone, she prayed. “I’m sitting in a hospital lost,” she said. “I sat there and just said, ‘I’m going to leave it all up to you (God).’”
Scott-Fulton’s mom, now 73, made it through each surgery, getting better along the way. Finally after three weeks, it was clear she was going to make it.
It was several more months before she was able to go home, but the family was grateful.
Scott-Fulton had been right about her mother’s strength — another trait she got from her mom.
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