Albert Cruz

Albert Cruz, RN, BSN

at The Physicians Centre Hospital

JENNY TWITCHELL Special to The Eagle

For Albert Cruz, RN, BSN, being a nurse wasn’t just a way to use his skills to serve others, it was an escape out of poverty.

After Cruz graduated from nursing school in 1978 in the Philippines, he worked in an “indigent” hospital where he delivered more than 50 babies within a year. It required ingenuity and thinking on his feet, and although it was great experience, it didn’t pay the bills, he said.

“I love helping people, but I need to eat,” he said. “For example, I wanted to buy Levi jeans when I was working in the Philippines as a nurse, but I had to buy them in installments. I was a nurse and could not buy Levi jeans.”

The impoverished situation motivated Cruz to take a job as a company nurse where he worked in war-torn countries for about 10 years, including Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen

“I decided to leave the country and go to war-torn places because the pay was so much higher,” Cruz said. “My parents didn’t want me to go, but I would rather die working there than die of starvation. I wasn’t scared at all because I come from a third-world country; you hate being poor. I thought, ‘I don’t care if I die because then my parents will get money out of me.’”

After 10 years of being a company nurse, Cruz was recruited by Memorial Hospital in Lufkin in 1989, where he started as a dialysis nurse. His career also included working in the intensive care unit and in acute long term, which is where he met his wife, Priscilla Manalili Cruz. She was a nurse as well and had been working there for five years. Together, he and Priscilla worked together in Lufkin as nurses for 22 years.

Coworkers say Cruz’s extensive experience is a tremendous benefit to the team. He’s dependable, skillful, cheerful, and quickly builds rapport with patients, said Shireen Billette, RN, who works with Cruz at The Physicians Centre Hospital where he currently works.

“He has been a nurse for so long; he’s in his 60s now but has been a nurse for 40 plus years, and he just has so much knowledge, so I do enjoy listening to his stories about where he has worked and the conditions he’s had to work in,” Billette said.

When one of Albert’s children moved out to College Station to attend Texas A&M University, Cruz and Priscilla came out to help her settle in, during which time a friend recruited him and Priscilla to be nurse supervisors in College Station. Unfortunately, after moving here and while working at Scott and White Hospital, Priscilla passed away in 2019. Wanting to make a change, Cruz moved over to The Physicians Centre Hospital where he works now as a medical-surgical nurse.

Devastation struck again when his daughter passed away a year ago. It was almost too much for him to bear, but he continues to work hard and focus on his children, he said.

“It’s very admirable, just one of those losses would be enough to set someone back significantly, but both of them, I can’t imagine,” Billette said. “I really admire him persisting and being there for his children that are here and still doing a good job at work.”

The adversities and hardship that Cruz has been experienced has helped him become more sympathetic and hardworking, he said.

“I am very happy; I am very grateful with my nursing career – with what I’ve gone through, with what I’ve learned, with what I have become and with what I’ve accomplished,” Cruz said.

The part he enjoys the most is being a part of healing – seeing patients get better, he said. When working in long-term care, it was rare to see a patient recover, but every now and then, a miracle would happen, he said.

“Being a part of that just makes me feel good,” he said. “It’s a special calling and has a special value. I really treasure those moments. Those are ones I will never forget.”

Cruz plans to retire in a little over a year. He considered retiring earlier, but he continued to work after his tragedies because the job keeps him “sane,” he said.

“It gives me a sense of direction; gives me something to do,” he said. “I don’t know what I would have done without it after losing my wife and daughter.”

That sense of purpose comes from caring for patients.

“For me, that is so beautiful; love to be involved in healing,” he said. “I love to share what I do. I am very blessed. I am naturally sympathetic and love to share that with others who are willing to be shared with. I am a very giving person. I have more than enough to share, and sharing is taking care of sick people, and to see them get well is the reward I get.”