For as long as she can remember, 33-year-old Lindsey Flores has wanted to help people. She just didn’t always know how.
“I always feel like I’m an indecisive person in general where, usually, the answer is sitting right in front of me,” Flores said.
It wasn’t until she enrolled at Texas Tech University where she finally realized the thing she wanted to do with the rest of her life had quite literally been right in front of her.
Flores’ mom, Cindy Flom, has been a nurse for 34 years.
She was pregnant with Lindsey the day she started working at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.
Today, mother and daughter work just two floors apart.
“I do feel like I was destined to be a nurse and I didn’t even realize it,” Flores said.
“It’s not only rewarding that she’s gone into the same career that I did, but that she’s been successful at what she does,” said Flom.
Flom says, like Flores, she was born to be a nurse.
Flom’s mom, Maggie, became a nurse in 1945 and helped treat soldiers at the end of World War II. Even when she wasn’t working, Flom’s mom found ways to help anyone who needed it.
“She was kind to everyone, she was helpful,” Flom said. “I don’t know where I’d be without her. She was a great role model.”
It’s the kind of compassion Flom tried to model when she became a nurse.
That may explain why Flores always felt a calling to help people.
“She’s very selfless, very modest,” Flores said. “She’s the one who puts things back together when they’re broken in every sort of way I could mean that.”
Both women say their moms showed them what it means to care for others, to treat people like they’re more than just patients.
Lindsey says some people even call her "Little Cindy."
Although they’re just joking, she says there may be no greater compliment.
“I love her,” Flores said. “She’s been a good role model. I definitely don’t think I would’ve gotten this far in life without her.”
“You don’t have to be the smartest nurse at your job, but if you’re caring, kind and helpful that’s more important than anything,” Flom said.
That’s because following in their mothers' footsteps was never about doing what they’ve done, but rather about being who they are.
Correction: An earlier version said the mother and daughter worked six floors apart. They work two floors apart.