The cliché goes that some can light up a room when they enter. The crowd parts and the laughter and smiles increase. You know the kind. The light they provide is really more of a gravitational pull. They enter a room, and the atmosphere shifts as people often unintentionally drift toward them.

Sylvia McBeath, a pediatric nurse for 15 years at Merit Health River Region Medical Center, was one of those people. The words “To know her was to love her” etched on her gravestone after she lost her battle to breast cancer on June 23 stand as a testament.

“A lot of kids, that’s the only nurse they’ve ever known. She’d be taking care of big brother as well as little brother,” said Dr. Gordon Sluis, who McBeath worked for during her tenure at Merit Health. “She had a lot of committed families that cared for and appreciated her. Her care of others superseded care about herself.”

For many local families Mrs. Sylvia, as she was known, was a constant in children’s lives.
“The kids loved her. The parents loved her. I can’t say enough good words,” said Maureen Lack, her longtime friend and a former coworker at Dr. Sluis’ office. “If they called to schedule shots or something and she wasn’t there, they’d wait until she got back. She just had a way of making people feel comfortable.”

McBeath was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, entered remission after chemo treatments and then relapsed in 2012. Those close to her said she viewed her cancer as life defining.

“When people would ask how she was, she would say she was fine and it was ‘just a bump in the road,’” her sister Amy Whitton said. “(She’d say) she didn’t ‘own’ the cancer diagnosis. Sylvia hid her tears and only shared her smiles with others.”

McBeath continued to work at Dr. Sluis’ office until December, when a quick progression of the cancer left her unable to move without assistance.

“She could have played the cancer card, but she didn’t,” Lack said.

Sluis said McBeath served the Vicksburg community in “high pressure and joyful moments” regardless of her health at the time.
“Whenever she had a setback, she’d let her emotions show and keep coming to work to care for the kids,” he said. “She treated people with empathy, care and support and showed Christian love through that.”

Whitton said McBeath just buzzed about her work, wearing one of her three wigs, named Roxie, Collette and Lil’ Sylvia, to work each day.
“One day a child yanked off her wig while she was giving an injection,” Whitton said. “It fell on the floor. She just picked it up, said ‘Whoops,’ slapped it on her head and walked out the door. She bent over laughing at the expression on the mama’s face. She acted like she had just dropped her ink pen.”

For all the light moments, McBeath’s cancer continued to require treatment.

“She never complained about anything. Her saying was, ‘I’m perfectly fine.’ If she didn’t say that to you, something was bad wrong,” said McBeath’s oncology nurse at Jackson Oncology Associates in Vicksburg. “She was an absolute delight. She was one of those people you could meet one time and fall in love with her. I just couldn’t wait until Thursday when she came in. We would swap stories and laugh until tears rolled down our faces. We would laugh about how stupid the soap operas were.”

Couch said a tumor on McBeath’s spine that surfaced in December 2015 is what led to her paralysis, leaving her unable to work and in need of constant care until her passing last month.

“She had such great family and friends taking care of her,” Couch said. “I’m thankful for that.”

Lack said it’s going to take time for both her close family and those used to seeing her at the office to adjust to her absence.

“She’s going to be hard to replace (at the office), if that’s possible,” she said. “I’ve caught myself going to pick up the phone to call her. It’s going to take awhile to adjust.”

In memory of McBeath, Dr. Sluis’ office collected animal food for the Vicksburg-Warren Humane Society.

Lack said her three dogs, Maggie, Lucky and Coco, and her cat, Tucker, were close to her heart so the donation was a fitting memorial.

According to the Humane Society, it received 358.85 pounds worth of dog and cat food and treats donated in McBeath’s memory.

She is survived by her husband of 34 years, Kim R. McBeath; her sister, Amy Greer Whitton; her mother-in-law, Wynette McBeath; three nephews; two nieces; two great nieces; four cousins; and many friends.