It was a special moment for Jeri Lloyd.

The Georgia Perimeter College student was finally walking across the stage to receive her nursing pin. It was a walk that took almost 10 years to complete.

“When I graduated as a licensed practical nurse from DeKalb Tech, I planned on coming to nursing school. But life has a way of slowing things down,” the mother of three reflected.

The Gwinnett County resident was awarded the Outstanding Nursing Student Award for her high GPA and clinical excellence, during the college’s 2014 Nurse Pinning Ceremony held at Clarkston Campus.

The traditional ceremony celebrates the nursing program graduates with a ceremonial class nursing pin. Lloyd was one of 31 nurses who graduated from the program in December.

“Throughout the program, Jeri has balanced family, work and school demands to achieve success,” says Kelly Dyar, the GPC nursing faculty member who presented the award to Lloyd. “Despite juggling many family needs, Jeri was always seen with smile on her face … Jeri is definitely a nurse that faculty would entrust with their own care.”

Lloyd was working as an LPN in the infusion unit of Emory’s Winship Cancer Center when she had twins. The boy and girl were both born with a rare blood disease that does not allow them to process protein; the condition requires constant surgeries.  (She already had a two-year old when the twins were born.)

Over the years, she stopped and started nursing school, she says. A year ago, she was accepted to Georgia Perimeter’s LPN-to-RN accelerated bridge program, which allows licensed practical nurses to take an accelerated course load and complete the requirements to become registered nurses in three semesters.

Lloyd said she had barely started the program last December, when her maternal grandmother died. “I felt I started the program already behind,” she says. Then, her stepfather died, followed by the death of her paternal grandmother. The deaths hit her hard, but she continued her studies.

Also during the program, her daughter became severely ill, requiring Lloyd to take time out to go to Cincinnati where her daughter received specialized treatment and surgeries. It helped tremendously, she says, that her husband stepped up to the plate, caring for the children while she was in class and in her clinical rotations.

“It has been really hard, but I had my family’s support. And I knew, I just can’t fail—I needed to do this and get it done for my family. Becoming a registered nurse is a huge accomplishment for my entire family—we completed this together. “

Despite the long road to her RN, Lloyd says her next steps will be to obtain her BSN and master’s degree in nursing.