This is the continuation of a series of Body, Mind & Soul stories that highlights member student-athletes, coaches and administrators of Conference Carolinas.
MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - As Mount Olive’s Director of Athletics Communications, Ryan Smith is charged with the task of nominating student-athletes for academic, athletic and leadership postseason awards each year.
However, the nomination he prepared last April hit awfully close to home. Literally.
One night, Ryan was watching an Atlanta Braves telecast in his living room and began to listen intently when the team broadcasters mentioned that the Braves and their sponsor Truist were teaming up for a special promotion called “Front Row for the Frontline.”
The club said it would honor essential, frontline workers that have served the community selflessly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those people chosen would receive a special VIP experience at a game at Truist Park that included four front row seats next to the home dugout, special parking and complimentary food and beverages.
Almost immediately, Smith had an idea. He would nominate his wife Keyrstan, who had heroically treated patients at Wayne UNC Healthcare in Goldsboro, North Carolina as a night-shift nurse on the medical/surgical floor that has also floated on the COVID unit during the height of the pandemic this past year.
“Anyone who knows my wife knows she doesn’t want attention,” said husband, Ryan. “But seeing all the heartache she’s gone through, things she couldn’t tell anybody about except me, I felt like she deserves some recognition.”
As Ryan began typing the nomination on his laptop with the Braves game in the background, Keyrstan became curious.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “Oh, nothing honey,” he replied.
While Ryan felt there was a “one-in-a-million chance” that she might be chosen, he prepared a nomination that apparently persuaded the team to select Keyrstan as one of the promotion winners.
Two months later, Ryan received an email from Kathryn Worsham, the Braves’ Manager of Community Affairs, who informed him that his wife had been picked.
Ryan was amazed when he first learned of the tremendous news. In fact, Keyrstan could see that something was different.
“Finally I told her and we both cried and did a lot of hugging,” Ryan said.
“Ryan’s hands were shaking when he handed me his (cell) phone to read the email,” Keyrstan recalled. “I think I might have said a few choice words before just yelling, ‘Go Braves!’”
The Smiths were allowed to select any remaining home game and they chose Sunday, Aug. 8 when Atlanta hosted the Washington Nationals in a Sunday afternoon contest. But first, Keyrstan had to continue her grueling work schedule of night shift duty at the hospital as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN).
The mother of a two-and-half-year-old son named Jace, she had to lean heavily on Ryan and relatives to juggle her crazy schedule. On most mornings, Keyrstan arrived home between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. after her night shifts. Ryan and her resembled two ships passing in the night, as he would get Jace dressed and fed by 8:45 a.m. and drop him off at daycare.
“We were lucky to see Keyrstan for even a half hour in the morning,” said Ryan.
Before entering the house, she would change clothes on the front porch and then immediately shower and disinfect herself before allowing Jace or Ryan to touch her. Invariably, Jace would cry, “Mommy’s home!” when she arrived.
“It was hard to tell him to stay away until I cleaned up,” she said. “When he was only one, he would cry and want to hug me.”
But over time, little Jace became accustomed to the daily routine.
“He would say, ‘Mommy’s got to shower!’ Then he’d wait right outside the bathroom and say, ‘Mommy done yet?’”
Grateful for the little things, Keyrstan always looked forward to picking up her son at daycare at 4 p.m. after she slept most of the day. Then the vicious cycle returned as she was out the door by 6:30 for her next shift. Beyond making dinner most nights, Ryan would sometimes prepare a to-go box meal for Keyrstan to take with her.
“She would be so busy some nights, she just didn’t have time to go to the cafeteria. I wanted her to at least have something because she might not eat until 2 a.m.”
With Ryan facing his own demands at work, particularly during the same COVID period, there were times when their schedules invariably collided.
“My schedule can change every hour, especially because of COVID when a coach might move a game at a moment’s notice,” Ryan said. “We’ve canceled games and then found out a student-athlete had a false negative test and suddenly the game is back on.”
With Keyrstan’s schedule requiring changes at least a month in advance, it’s Ryan who needed to be nimble.
“First thing I think of when there’s a conflict at night is who’s going to watch Jace,” he said. “We lean on our parents or other family when we can, but there are times I had to tell my boss I may not be able to cover this. The last thing I wanted to do was add any stress for Keyrstan who had plenty of stress at work.”
Smith said that Jeff Eisen, the Trojans’ Vice President of Athletics, has fully understood the pressures his family faces and has given Ryan as much latitude as possible in making the schedule work.
“What Keyrstan is dealing with is a life and death matter,” Ryan added. “I really appreciate that Jeff understands. He runs a department where hours aren’t important, results are. We make it work.”
For Keyrstan, combatting COVID under the most harrowing conditions has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. However, this summer she and her family enjoyed a polar-opposite experience that will also last a lifetime.