Riverside Health System on the Middle Peninsula recently cited 75 employees for an aggregate of 900-plus years of service. The ceremony was held Jan. 21 in the Riverside Walter Reed Hospital conference room.

Those cited include Pat Booker, who said in a release, “Riverside has been part of me since birth. It’s my roots.” 

Booker was born at Riverside’s old regional hospital in Newport News on 50th Street, began following her dream of going into medicine while in high school, graduated from Riverside’s School of Nursing, becoming an LPN in 1975, began working at Walter Reed Memorial Hospital when it opened in Gloucester in 1977 and this year celebrates her 40th anniversary with the health system, where today she serves as the Middle Peninsula’s Manager of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Respiratory Therapy.

“Riverside has made me what I am today,” Booker said. “Riverside has been such an integral part of my journey, always support...