A Window into the Past

In honor of the legacy of care that Lakeland Regional Health has been honored to provide Lakeland and the surrounding areas for more than 100 years, we love uncovering and sharing the stories that have shaped our community. Here is just one of those stories…

It was a different kind of workday for Jessica Jenkins.

As a registered nurse at Lakeland Regional Health, Jessica specializes in caring for mothers and babies and serving as an IBCLC (lactation consultant). However, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jessica has also been doing what many healthcare professionals have — using her nursing skills in a variety of capacities. She jumps in wherever she is needed, including providing IV treatments, vaccines, covering shifts for coworkers, and the like.

That day, however, she was working in an office she had never visited before. After 20 years at LRH, she figured she was familiar with most of the locations within the healthcare system, especially those that are close to the Medical Center. This place, the Center for Employee Health — located in a nondescript area on the corner of Parkview Place and Morrell Drive — was unique. It was definitely not your typical office building. As she entered, she felt that the place had a homey, vaguely familiar feeling that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Once inside, Jessica noticed a doorbell behind one of the curtains. Intrigued, she asked why a doorbell was in the office. One of the nurses explained that the building, though renovated, used to be a home in the 1950s.

As Jessica looked around, suddenly images she had only seen in photographs flashed in her mind, and she started to realize something.

This was her mother’s childhood home.

Visiting Memories

Excitedly, Jessica called her mother, Rachel Brown. After Jessica described the location and the building, Rachel confirmed that it was, indeed, the home of Rachel’s parents, Leon and Mildred Wilbanks and it was her childhood home. She was incredulous that the structure was not only still standing, but being put to good use, as the majority of the older homes in that area had long since been demolished.

Rachel requested permission to visit after Jessica’s shift and made the drive to Lakeland from her current home a couple hours south. When she arrived, together mother and daughter visited her childhood in a way that was more immersive, and memorable, than turning the pages of a photo album.

“When I walked in, it was almost like I could be a little girl again,” said Rachel fondly. “I could just look in every corner and remember things, like where my mother’s beautiful ebony piano used to sit, or where our wooden desk was. The memories just came flooding back.”

Her family had moved into the home when she was 18 months old and lived there until she was in 9th grade. In those days, the housing development was new, and her house was considered large, with two small bedrooms and one tiny bath. “The bathroom was so small that you could barely get in and out!” Rachel remembers with a chuckle. “But we never thought ‘oh, we need more room.’ We just enjoyed and appreciated the space we had.”

On either side of the small bathroom were her parents’ room and the bedroom shared by Rachel and her sister, Teresa. When her brother Jim was born, the little “library” on the other side of the house was converted into his bedroom. A few years later, her father added a screened porch, which he later enclosed to turn it into a Florida room. These rooms now all serve as office space and exam rooms.

As she walked down the back steps, Rachel reminisced about the outside area that was home to many family gatherings. Although not screened, the large table allowed them to host neighbors, friends, and family for holidays, parties, and impromptu gatherings.

“In the backyard, my dad always had a garden,” Rachel remembers. “Later on, he built a playhouse for Teresa and me. That was popular back then too, to have a wooden playhouse. We loved having sleepover parties and playing house in it!”

Another major difference in daily living back then was that most houses and businesses did not have central air. “I guess we were just used to not having air conditioning!” Rachel laughs. “You didn’t know what you were missing.”

The Old Neighborhood

Growing up nearby the hospital, made it just as much a part of their neighborhood as the houses. At that time, nurses received their training directly at the hospital, and Rachel remembers seeing nurses coming and going at all hours from the nurses’ home that was also right nearby.

Another benefit to having the hospital right across the street came when her brother, James Leon Wilbanks Jr., was born. The maternity ward was a single-story wood building — an old barracks from WWII —attached to the hospital. “Since we were under 14 when Jim was born, Teresa and I weren’t allowed into the hospital to see him,” Rachel explains. “So, we just walked across the street and looked through the window instead! It was so special to have a brother, and I still remember peeking through the window and smiling at him.”

The neighborhood kids all walked to and from school together every day, and then after school they “ran” the neighborhood. “It really was ‘play outside until the streetlights come on,’” Rachel says. They would get inventive and create performances for the neighbors to come and see. Rachel even recalls putting together a circus and charging admission—and people came! In the evenings, they would drag blankets out into the yard, look up at the stars, and learn the constellations.

On Saturdays, she and her siblings and the neighborhood kids would enjoy walking to Downtown Lakeland, even when they were elementary school age. She and her sister liked to buy fake nails at a store in downtown, sit in the park and put them on, and then go watch a movie for free at the Polk Theatre. On Sundays their family, along with most of the neighborhood, walked up the road to Parkview Baptist Church to attend services. “I know this all sounds like a TV show set in that time,” Rachel says. “But that’s really what our lives were like!”

The kids didn’t have to make all their own entertainment, though. They actually got to see Elvis Presley perform live when he came to the Polk Theatre! Admission was only $1.25, and she still remembers the thrill of hearing him sing his new song, “Hound Dog” on stage.

Family Roots Run Deep

Now that Rachel’s parents and Teresa have since passed away, she and Jim appreciate their sibling bond and shared memories even more. In fact, Jim hasn’t gone far from Lakeland Regional — he has served on the Hospital Foundation Board until 2022. He and his wife, Kim, have been instrumental in several key initiatives, including the dedication of some rooms within the hospital to members of their respective families.

Kim’s grandfather, Joe Blanton was the president of Publix for 10 years, and Rachel worked for many years as the assistant to Howard Jenkins, son of Publix founder George Jenkins. Now Rachel’s daughter Jessica works at the Carol Jenkins Barnett Pavilion for Women and Children.

“These family connections are just so special. I think that’s one of the greatest things about Lakeland — the deep roots of community here,” Rachel says. “I know that these memories I have of how life was in the 50s and 60s are similar to so many others in my generation, and it’s such a blessing to have grown up during that time.”

Looking Back

Of all these memories, Rachel’s favorite is playing dress-up with Teresa and dancing to music from their record player or their mother’s piano playing. “Those memories are just so precious to me,” Rachel says. “Visiting the house brought back the joy of that time with my family in a way I hadn’t been able to experience in years.”

As she started to leave the house, Rachel turned and looked once more. Jessica used her phone to pull up “Nola,” the lively song that was her grandmother’s favorite to play on the piano for her daughters. As she listened, Rachel could almost see herself and her sister as young children, twirling and dancing to their mother’s music right there in that room, their giggles echoing through the decades — filling her heart with love and gratitude for those golden days gone by.

The Center for Employee Health is where new LRH employees receive their physical and ID badge, and complete necessary paperwork before starting their careers at LRH. The office is also used for additional employee healthcare services as needed.

A Window into the Past

In honor of the legacy of care that Lakeland Regional Health has been honored to provide Lakeland and the surrounding areas for more than 100 years, we love uncovering and sharing the stories that have shaped our community. Here is just one of those stories…

Visiting Memories

The Old Neighborhood

Family Roots Run Deep

Looking Back

The Center for Employee Health is where new LRH employees receive their physical and ID badge, and complete necessary paperwork before starting their careers at LRH. The office is also used for additional employee healthcare services as needed.

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