Letter to the Editor: Remembering Lloyd Walker

Remembering Lloyd Walker

This past Wednesday, late at night while most slept, Carlsbad, New Mexico lost an unsung hero and MVP.

If I write this as a eulogy, which I know I won’t be able to deliver, so be it. However it needed to be written and your community should take note. There likely will not be a wing of the hospital or library with his name. There may not even be a small bronzed plaque above the desk where he sat. But a man I met and befriended so many years ago, Lloyd Walker, is deserving of so much more.

In an inexplicable twist of fate he was taken from this world. But I knew this man. And I know he is not far now. By that I mean he is in the hearts of the so many lives he touched. He is in mine and will be until my own end. Year after year, after year I was to bear witness to an unrelenting empathy and compassion towards every single person that stepped into the emergency department at Carlsbad Medical Center.

It did not matter who you were, what you were there for, or who you knew. Lloyd Walker had you on his radar and would go the extra mile to acknowledge and address your concerns. He lived to comfort and sooth, and to make you feel that you were the most important person at that moment in time, sometimes on the worst day of your life.

I find that priceless. I know he repeatedly brought things to my attention that would have easily been missed in chaotic and overwhelming ER conditions. If over the years I was able to transform myself into a more caring, empathetic, and compassionate doctor I can point to this one man as a major contributor to that. And I am forever grateful. We look toward role models and I believe we all learned from this gem of a man that was sent to this town to do that simple, unassuming job. A clerk. Greeter. And always patient advocate. A humble, simple man that wanted nothing in return. The void he leaves is enormous, and it may be a tall order, but I believe we can help fill his shoes if only we could all carry just a little bit of Lloyd Walker in us every day.

I think MVP or hero are terms he would be most uncomfortable with. I only wish he could have touched more of us. Our world would be a better place. I hope the Carlsbad community honors him and participates in a proper send off. He proudly served your hospital and community until the end.

Memorial services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Nov. 13 at First Methodist Church.

Sergio A. Sobredo, Jr., M.D.

Carlsbad, N.M.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Letter to the Editor: Remembering Lloyd Walker