By Karlie Baker
IV Leader Editor, Oct. 4, 2007
Illinois Valley Community College graduate Amy Maloy died Sept. 12 in Marshall County following a two-vehicle accident.
Maloy, 37, graduated from the school’s nursing program in May 2007 and was currently working as a registered nurse in the neurological unit at St. Francis Medical Center, Peoria. She is survived by one son and two daughters.
“When Amy walked into a room, you knew it,” recalls IVCC Nursing Lab Instructor Laura Hodgson. Maloy is remembered as very funny, boisterous and fun-loving.
Maloy experienced some difficulties being both a parent and returning student, but according to instructor Pam Mammano, she always persevered. Maloy was a student who sometimes struggled academically, but constantly kept up a positive attitude and did whatever necessary to get help, Mammano said.
Instructors described Maloy as very friendly and spontaneous. She was a ‘kind’ listener, but also one of the first people to tell the ugly truth. Hodgson specifically remembers a time in class when a bag of donated nursing uniforms sat in the lab. Hodgson pulled out a uniform dress and suggested Maloy try it on.
Maloy replied, “I’m not wearing that: that’s a dress!” Yet not only did she try the dress on, but wore the same dress to the pinning ceremony.
“That same dress was displayed at her wake and funeral,” Hodgson said.
Hodgson said one of the hardest considerations about Maloy’s death is that Maloy was just beginning her career.
“She wanted to give back what people have done for her. And to think of all those people she would have touched, it’s sad.”
Bringing joy unto others was Maloy’s calling until her very last day. Mammano reported that the night before she died, Maloy rallied together a group of nurses on her floor to perform a line dance for a neurological patient who said he missed being able to dance.