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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Gary Bentley brought a handful of things with him to the meeting at Vulcan Park.
Gary had his family with him - including his wife, Gwen, who helped him search for the nurse who took care of him after open-heart surgery 40 years ago. He had a bouquet of flowers, too, and a framed photo of himself and the nurse, the only real piece of information he had to identify her.
Gary also carried a tattered, worn family memories book. On one page, there was a blank space where the original photo had once been glued. According to Gary, the memories book survived several foster homes and a house fire. He pointed out where water from firefighters' hoses had stained one of the pages.
"I am nervous," Gary said. "It's hard not to cry. The tears, I have to hold them back. I'm just excited."
When the nurse, Kathy Henricks, arrived at Vulcan Park on Sunday afternoon, they both welled up and embraced for what seemed like minutes.
Gary gave Kathy the flowers and the framed photo of the two of them together, and tried to thank her for showing him kindness when he needed it the most.
"I've never forgotten," he told her as they embraced.
Gary had the heart surgery at UAB Hospital in 1973, after the state took him and his six siblings from their alcoholic, abusive father, and put them in foster homes. Doctors discovered that a hole in Gary's heart that was supposed to have healed had not. He was 10 years old at the time.
"She was so sweet to me at a time in my life when I really needed someone to show me that there were good people out there that cared and wanted to help," Gary said.
Kathy said she was in her early 20s at the time. She was six months from graduating, working part time as a nurse's aide to put herself through school.
She made a huge impact on Gary in his recovery, but she says she "absolutely" had no idea at the time.
"I wish I would have known," she said. "I wish that I would have known more. I wish I could have done more."
"She went way beyond the duty of a nurse, with her smile," Gary said. "I looked forward to it every day. Like I said before, I cried when they took me off her floor, and I tried to go back down to her floor to see her, but they wouldn't let me."
"The fact that anybody would go to the depths that he did to try to locate me, to thank me, it was just incredible," Kathy said. "I just can't imagine."
Kathy - who is still a nurse and works in the cardiac unit at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika - said Gary was giving her too much credit. Nursing, she said, is "a lot of compassion."
"It's a lot of medicine, but it's a lot of compassion," she said. "If you don't have that part of it, then I think something has to be missing."
Kathy found out Gary was looking to tell her thank you when a story about Gary's search for his nurse went up on AL.com on Thursday. He had only a possible first name, date, location, and the photo, but that was enough. Kathy's college roommate, Gwen Harlan, saw the photo and alerted Kathy. Kathy's daughters helped, and helped organize the reunion Sunday.
Had it not been for them, Kathy - who was with several members of her family Sunday, as well - might have never known, especially since she gave up Facebook for Lent.
She was stunned to find out that the story of Gary's search had become very popular on Facebook and on AL.com. "I had no clue," she said.
"We're both very excited that it has touched so many people," Gary, who now runs a turtle farm in Killen, Ala., and bills himself as the Alabama Turtle Farmer, said.
"That really is the amazing thing," Kathy said. "I read some of the comments - that this story has brought tears to people's eyes - and I was just, that blew me away. I totally feel that it's not warranted. I don't feel that I did anything special."
"We never really know the potential that we have to make some kind of special impact," she said.
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