White River Junction
A dedicated, hard-working nurse with a talent for connecting with those around her, Barth was beloved by both patients and co-workers. She worked 42 years at the VA, winning both national awards and the respect of the Upper Valley’s medical community.
Those who worked with Barth, who died at 66 on July 28 after a short battle with cancer, remember a driven personality with an unrivaled work ethic, a mentor with the patience and personality to help others understand and an expert who seemed to always have the answers.
“I met her as an intern,” said Dr. Christina Fitch, who first met Barth as a resident at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center who took shifts at the VA. “She was so wonderful in mentoring the attending physicians. You’re there spending long nights alone, countless hours with sick patients. She’d be in the ICU, checking in on doctors because she had the most experience.”
Barth’s experience earned respect. But it was Barth’s work ethic that allowed her to provide care with thoughtful patience.
“She loved her career, loved nursing, loved caring for other people,” said Ruth Kenney, who worked as a health supervisor at the VA. from 2014 to 2017. “She was a very committed person; had the loyalty of the facility, loyalty to her job, to nursing as a career. She wanted that place to be a good place for patients to come to.
“She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She was a nurse’s nurse.”
Born on Dec. 3, 1951, in Windsor, she was the only child of Edmond and Joyce Mandigo. She graduated from Windsor High in 1969 and went on to further her education at Burbank Hospital School of Nursing in Fitchburg, Mass., a three-year program. She received her degree in 1972.
“She was basically born to be a nurse,” said Kristen Barth, Barth’s daughter. “She always wanted to be a primary education teacher, but ended up going to nursing school.”
It was during Barth’s second year at Burbank that she met Nancy McCullough, a longtime friend who worked 32 years with Barth at the VA.
“We were both only children, both from Vermont. We bonded right away,” McCullough said. “The older kids had to choose little sisters coming in from the freshman class. … She chose me.
“I knew there was something special in some common thread that we had. … We were Vermonters at a Massachusetts school. Our parents met and they hit it off. Everything just seemed to connect.”
McCullough said Barth’s compassionate ability was easy to recognize.
“She had a gift, a gift to connect with people,” McCullough said. “She knew the right words to say to families, she was a role model in terms of teaching the doctors and other clinical staff around her. She knew the right way to do things, and people sought her out for her skills.”
After nursing school, Barth worked at Mt. Ascutney Hospital in Windsor and Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont before getting the job at the VA. It was during that time that she married Thomas Barth in 1971 in Windsor. The couple had two children, Kristen and Thomas Edmond, both of whom said they inherited their mother’s dedication.
“I feel like my brother and I have little tolerance for lazy people,” Kristen Barth said. “We were brought up with the expectation of, if someone hired you, you do everything you possibly can to do that job 100 percent.”
That drive, however, left very little time for family.
“To be honest, she worked a lot,” Kristen Barth said. “It was not uncommon for her to do back-to-back 16-hour shifts. She truly loved what she did. We have a running joke in the family: My mom had all the bedside manner in the world. It just didn’t come out at home.”
“When I was 16, I blew my ACL in a basketball game,” she added. “It’s another running joke, but when I blew out my knee, my mom said, ‘You’re fine, shut up and get back in the game.’ But she was the exact opposite. She spoiled us rotten.”
Added Thomas Barth, Barth’s son: “She was an incredibly hard-working woman, devoted to her children, family, dogs. But she was incredibly dedicated to her career. She spent most of her life at the VA. … I don’t think the woman got more than four or five hours of sleep (every night).”
Kristen Barth toyed with the idea of following in her mother’s footsteps, volunteering at the VA with her mother when she was 10 years old and continuing to do so all through high school. She ended up in education.
“She was very humble, didn’t want anyone to make a big fuss about her,” Kristen Barth said. “She wasn’t afraid to tell doctors they were making mistakes. She was very respectful in the way she did it, but she put the patients first.”
Fitch, now a physician at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., remembers getting an invaluable education during her time with Barth.
“She worked in the (emergency department), which is not for everybody,” Fitch said. “When there was a Code Blue — someone on death’s doorstep, they’ve died and you bring them back –— those are stressful situations. She taught us as young doctors how to lead, to look at us for leadership. … She taught me good clinical judgment, how to see patients very humanistically.
“The best education I got was from nurses, who formed the doctor I am today.”
Barth was perhaps well-positioned to help veterans. Her father was a World War II veteran, and Kristen Barth said she took her job caring for those who served in the U.S. military very seriously. Serving veterans also was part of the medical education.
“She had a heart for veterans,” Fitch said. “Veterans can be a challenging population to work with, they can be complicated and sometimes curmudgeonly. But (Barth) connected so well with people. She was down-to-earth. There were no facades. She gave you her all.”
Barth retired in 2016, a long awaited break that those who knew her said she had been looking forward to. When she left, some of her responsibilities fell to Kenney.
“When she left there was a lot of anxiety,” Kenney admitted. “(Barth) left huge shoes to fill. It was a huge job. She had everyone’s respect. I remember thinking, Oh my goodness, how am I possibly going to fill this role? She wasn’t just a good person for the job. She was perfect. I was petrified. There was no way I measured up.”
Kenney transferred to a VA hospital in Montana last year, but kept in touch with Barth. She remembered, in her year before moving, how veterans would ask specifically to see Barth, only to be told she had retired. Barth never told Kenney about her illness.
“That was just like Carol,” Kenney said. “Give, give, give, but never ask. She let some folks from work into her inner circle. To the rest of us, she hunkered down and faced it. She didn’t ask for help. That’s Carol. … She carried so much wisdom. But she was humble in her practice.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.