CLEVELAND — In April 2010, photographer Angelo Merendino began taking photos of his wife Jennifer and her breast cancer journey, one that included countless trips to the hospital.
Merendino captured the good times, the challenging times and those who were by Jennifer’s side until the very end.
“The nurses were — they were really our lifeline and we saw them when we were in the hospital for those extended periods. We saw them more than we saw our family,” Merendino said.
He said it was when he began to see nurses through a different lens. He saw them as the heroes they are.
“I would sit back and watch, and I think wow, the intelligence of these nurses is one thing but physical strength and the endurance of these nurses is another thing, and then they would do things that went way beyond that,” Merendino said.
Merendino said health care workers were there for him during the hardest time of his life. And now, more than 10 years later, he is using his talents to pay tribute to them. Nurses who’ve worked tirelessly during the coronavirus pandemic are the subject of his portrait project, based around a simple question: “Why did you become a nurse?”
“Nothing was about the ego, you know, it wasn’t about, ‘Well, I got into nursing so someone would say, hey, thank you for saving my life or for doing this.’ One nurse said just the fact that someone will call up and say thank you for doing your job is such a great honor,” Merendino said.
Merendino captured 30 portraits of local nurses and through the month of May, they’ll be displayed at the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospital. Cleveland Clinic emergency department nurse Betsy Martinez was one of them. She told Merendino that she became a nurse because it’s her calling.
“This is where I’m supposed to be. This is what I’m supposed to do. I love what I do. How many people could say that they love what they do? Years later, (I) still love it, so it’s an honor,” Martinez said.
Martinez said she considered herself and her fellow nurses heroes well before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“We’re emergency room nurses, you know, staff members and we save lives for a living. On TV, we see this like you know these superheroes wear capes and everything but this is my cape,” Martinez said.
But she said being included in Merendino’s portrait project means a lot to her, not only because she got to be in front of the camera, but because he and his story were behind it.
“He watched us, and I am thankful for the nurses that took care of his wife because they left an impression for me,” Martinez said. “I’m thankful for them for that and I’m thankful that Angelo will continue to honor us.”
