To Lynn Lawrence of South Greensburg, the solemn ceremony a group of area nurses conducted at a Greensburg funeral home to honor her late mother’s long career as a nurse, was “absolutely beautiful.”

“We were so touched … the entire family. We were so grateful that we were part of the first ceremony (by Angels of Westmoreland Nurses Honor Guard) that honored our mother,” Lawrence said of the ceremony conducted at Pantalone Funeral Home for Joan Benjamin, 87, a South Greensburg resident, who died Jan. 11.

The ceremony by the honor guard not only impacted the family, but the nurses who participated in it, said Sandy Majocha of Allegheny Township, a nurse practitioner for internal medicine at UPMC and for Monarch Hospice of Lower Burrell.

“All of the honor guard were very emotional as well. We were touched by the ceremony,” Majocha said.

A group of about 40 retired and active nurses in Westmoreland County have volunteered their time to form Angels of Westmoreland Nurses Honor Guard, to honor a deceased nurse, said Melanie Pantalone, president of the group. It is the first such group in Westmoreland County, said Pantalone, a retired nurse who had worked for about 18 years at Westmoreland Hospital and as a nursing director at St. Anne Home, both in Greensburg.

“Nursing is not a job or a career. It is a calling,” Pantalone said.

Viewing nursing as a calling is how Benjamin approached her job at Westmoreland Hospital for more than 30 years, being so dedicated that Lawrence said she would go to help care on her days off for relatives and friends who were ill.

“It has really taken off very, very quickly,” said Pantalone, who lives in Greensburg.

To be eligible to join the organization, a person must be an active or retired nurse, with a license in good standing, Pantalone said. Nurses of all kinds can join, such as a licensed practical nurse, a registered nurse, a nurse educator, a hospice nurse and others.

“As soon as I heard about it, I joined. Being part of this is so amazing. To honor the nurses who have worked at the bedside (of patients), dedicating their lives to their careers, that is an honor to give them” the ceremony, Majocha said.

One of the honor guard members who wanted to join is Sara Tyler of Hempfield, who served 39 years as a nurse at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Charleston, S.C.

“This is an opportunity to honor the nurse, her career, do the last call (to duty) and retire their license number,” said Tyler, who recalled how her firefighter husband would attend services for deceased firefighters, where they would do a last call to duty and retire their badge number.

The ceremony, lasting about 10 to 15 minutes, includes a description of the origin of St. George’s Cross, the nurse’s biography, a call for duty, a retirement of the nursing license, a nurse’s poem and a Florence Nightingale lamp presented to the family, she said.

“It’s a very touching ceremony,” said Pantalone, who anticipates doing about a half-dozen ceremonies in their first year.

Those eligible for that service could have been a retired or active nurse and must have possessed a nursing license in good standing, Pantalone said.

Retired Westmoreland Hospital nurse Darlene Nagrosky of Hempfield said she joined Angels of Westmoreland after some members from the Allegheny chapter conducted a ceremony last year for a nurse she knew.

“I thought it was a really nice thing to have for a nurse who passed,” said Nagrosk, who retired after 42 years as a nurse at Westmoreland Hospital.

Pantalone said she started in early fall to create an Angels chapter in the county, meeting with other nurses about forming the organization. She credits her husband, Nat, owner of Pantalone Funeral Home in Greensburg, with giving her the idea to form Angels of Westmoreland, as a result of a story he read in a funeral industry trade journal about the Angels of Allegheny Nurse Honor Guard.

Her husband provided funding in her mother’s name, also a nurse, to meet the legal requirements of a nonprofit. They purchased capes and caps made by a South Huntingdon seamstress, a flag with the Cross of St. George and a Florence Nightingale lamp, named after the famous British nurse of the 1800s.

To spread the word about the availability of the honor guard ceremony for deceased nurses, Pantalone said she mailed brochures about their group to 55 funeral homes in the county. The nondenominational ceremony is designed to complement and augment the funeral or memorial service.

The Allegheny Nurse Honor Guard chapter, which has about 50 members, was founded in 2008 by the late Marcia Ferrero, a former division director of nursing for Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, said Debbie Lesniak of Dormont, president of the Angels of Allegheny.

Ferrero came upon the idea after attending a funeral of a fellow nurse, but there was never any mention of the woman’s love of nursing, said Lesniak, a retired nurse who worked 45 years at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The Angels of Allegheny Nurse Honor Guard conducted a ceremony at Ferrero’s funeral in February 2024, Lesniak said.

“I found it (nurse’s ceremony) very rewarding,” Lesniak said.

The group conducted about 30 ceremonies last year for deceased nurses, Lesniak said. That included one in late December for Theresa Day, 51, of Manor, who had worked at the former Monsour Medical Center in Jeannette, UPMC Shadyside hospital in Pittsburgh, Westmoreland Hospital and was the nurse manager of hospital operations at AHN Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville, when she died.

“The families seek us out,” Lesniak said.