LILLINGTON, NC – Today Harnett Health Celebrated Phyllis Grimes as she heads off to retirement with her last day being January 4th, 2019. Phyllis has spent 30 years with Harnett Health working at first in the Lab at Betsy Johnson Hospital, and then the Lab at Central Harnett Hospital. As a token of their friendship, Phyllis’ friends gave her a Bible for a retirement gift because of her strong faith and devotion to being more like Christ.

While celebrating her retirement today VP Mike Jones and Phyllis began to reminisce about how Phyllis was the first employee on site at Central Harnett Hospital, working to calibrate lab equipment before the hospital could open. During this time Phyllis wore a hard hat and reflective vest as the hospital was still officially a work site.  As they continued to reminisce Mike and Phyllis discovered that they both graduated Apex High School together in 1972.

When asked about her time at Harnett Health Phyllis responded “I am thankful to have had the opportunity to help people every day from all walks of life. Harnett Health has come a long way in my 30 years, from the days of being just Betsy Johnson Hospital in Dunn, to adding Central Harnett Hospital in Lillington and several clinics around the county. I’m proud of how it keeps growing and serving the local community.” 

Phyllis cannot estimate how many patients she has helped over the years, some only once, and others more, but she knows that the number has to be somewhere in the tens of thousands of patients.

Phyllis plans on spending retirement relaxing and doing more Christ-like things. 

Thank you, Phyllis, for your Thirty years of service and dedication to making Harnett Health better every single day and we wish you the best of luck in retirement!