Denise Ruth Fleming 1959 - 2022

FLEMING, WRIGHT, DREY, COLE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 5/31/2022 at 11:14:09

Sioux City Journal
22 May 2022

Denise Ruth Fleming, 63, of Sioux City went home to her Lord and Savior early Friday morning, May 20, 2022, with her loving and devoted husband Patrick by her side, after struggling with renal carcinoma for a little over four years.

A private family service will be held. It is hoped that in the coming weeks, a Celebration of Life with friends and colleagues can take place. Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel is assisting with arrangements.

Denise (Wright) Fleming was born in Sac City, Iowa, on Jan. 13, 1959. Denise was baptized as an infant at Early Sacred Heart Church. She found her passion in life as a volunteer Candy Striper while attending St. Mary's High School as a young woman graduating in 1977.

She attended St. Joseph's School of Nursing in Sioux City graduating in 1979, with a RN degree. While attending school, she was employed in the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital. She served 45 years as an ER Nurse at St. Joseph's, Marian, Mercy, and now MercyOne Hospitals. She continued to work while battling stage 4 kidney cancer, until the disease progressed to a degree in March 2022 that she could no longer continue.

On April 6, 1995, Denise was united in marriage to Patrick Fleming, the love of her life.

To know Denise was to love her. She was primarily about three things: providing the best patient care possible; sharing her abilities and work ethics with hundreds of new hires to the nursing profession over the span of her career; and her kindness. She was a role model, mentor and friend.

When she took a much needed and deserved break, she enjoyed a month of sun and fishing with her husband and friends in the winter months in Cabo San Lucas Mexico. She also enjoyed fishing in Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Alaska. She gardened, canned, cut and split wood, assisted Patrick tending his cattle, and worked tirelessly alongside her husband.

Denise is survived by her husband Patrick of Sioux City; mother Ruth Wright of Storm Lake, Iowa; sister Sue (Jay) Norgaard of Carroll, Iowa; brothers Paul (Nancy) Wright of Waverly, Iowa, Pat (Mel) Wright of Marion, Iowa, Mike (Donna) Wright of Earlham, Iowa, and Jim (Cheryl) Wright of Tucson, Ariz.; sister-in-law Mary Jo Reilly (Marti) of Sioux City; brother-in-law Michael (Kathleen) Fleming of Grimes, Iowa; numerous nephews and nieces; three great-nieces; aunts; uncles; and a host of nursing friends.

She was preceded in death by her biological father Norman Drey; father Jerry Wright; her in-laws James and Marian Fleming; and grandparents George and Alice Drey, Clarence and Nellie Wright, and Earl and Gertrude Cole.

Her family and husband would like to thank her MercyOne family, particularly but not limited to her fellow ER staff who provided her with top notch care, compassion and love the numerous times she was forced to go there for help. Also, the nurses on 8th floor (room 8252) where she spent her final days. Their care was what you would expect and way beyond that. A word of gratitude to the hospital administration that demonstrated they "had her back." A special thanks to the staff and nurses along with Dr. Wender at June E. Nylen Cancer Center for their superb care and compassion over a four-year period.

It was hard to see her go but there's no denying heaven of a new Angel. Denise led her life quietly and wished to leave quietly and with dignity.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to her family. They plan to set up a nursing scholarship in Denise's name to help carry on a career that she was so passionate about.