Yellowknife (May 15/06) - Nursing is certainly a calling for this family.

Mother and daughter, Susan and Candace Balmer of Hay River, graduated together at the Aurora College graduation ceremony last Saturday for the Yellowknife campus.

Mother and daughter, Susan and Candace Balmer, shared a special day together at the Aurora College Yellowknife campus graduation May 6. Both graduated from nursing programs and shared a deep sense of pride for each other's achievements. - photo courtesy of Candace Balmer

The convocation was held May 6 at the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife.

"It was a coincidence," Susan said.

"It wasn't until we talked that we realized we'd graduate together. It was not planned," she said.

Susan has been a nurse since 1975, graduating with a degree in health care, and decided to upgrade her skills in nursing in the two-year nurse practitioner certificate program offered at Aurora College in Yellowknife.

Instead of just caring for her patients, Susan can now write prescriptions and order tests.

Her daughter Candace was already enroled in the brand new nursing degree program at the college, where students will receive a four-year bachelor of science degree from the University of Victoria.

Candace said she got involved in nursing after speaking to her mother.

"My brother and sister-in-law are nurses too. It had to be a good profession," Candace said, laughing.

Her brother, Jon, met his soon-to-be-wife in the nursing diploma program. They, too, graduated together.

Mother and daughter said they were proud of their own achievements when they were recognized in front of hundreds of people in the room, but said they were even more proud of each other.

"There's nothing like a mother's pride," Susan said.

"She had worked so very, very hard," Candace said.

After the graduation, mother and daughter joined the rest of the family to celebrate their graduation together.

The only things Susan and Candace didn't share was a home in Yellowknife.

Candace said their studying habits were the exact opposite - Candace studies in the evenings, while mom Susan prefers to study in the morning - so living together wasn't an option.

Susan got her own apartment and Candace lived with her brother and his wife Sandy, both of whom are nurses.

Candace said her family is drawn to the health and helping professions because each member has an "outgoing and caring" nature.