A lot has changed in both medicine and the Taylor medical community during the last half century.
But there’s been one constant the past 50 years in Taylor health care – Bonnie Machu.
The Elgin native and nurse has been a staple at Johns Community Hospital/Baylor Scott & White-Taylor since 1974. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love the patients I care for and the people I work with,” Machu said.
Machu, 80, works in the operating room. When she began at the hospital, she was a labor and delivery nurse.
The hospital discontinued its labor and delivery program in the late 1980s, and Machu transferred to the operating room.
She considered retiring in 1997, but something happened that made her reconsider.
“I had heart problems and needed surgery,” Machu said. “After a month of rehabilitation, I decided to keep working.”
And the octogenarian has done that ever since – without any repercussions of heart disease. When Machu is not working, she spends time with her husband, Howard.
Bonnie and Howard Machu will celebrate 63 years of marriage May 19. The couple has two children – daughters Paula and Lori – both of whom are married and have two children of their own.
Each of the couple’s four grandchildren also has two children. This gives them two children, four children and eight great-grandchildren.
After the pair married in 1962, they moved to Corpus Christi for Howard’s job. During that time, Bonnie went to nursing school at Del Mar College.
Then Howard found employment in his hometown of Taylor, and that’s where his wife’s nursing career began.
Bonnie loves what she does and has advice for anyone who aspires to be a nurse.
“Study hard and get into nursing because you love to take care of people,” she said.
