It’s the early 70’s when a little girl in a large family (4 sisters, 3 brothers) watches reruns of Dr. Ben Casey every chance she gets.  Yes Ben is handsome and smart, but her fixation is on another character in the show, Nurse Wills. 

 Her family circumstances are difficult, they move often, she changes schools a number of times, she finds herself married and a mother before she can graduate high school.   An unspoken, impossible dream slips so deep into the background that it is all but forgotten.

Time passes, she is in her 30’s – something drives her – she goes to classes and gets a high school GED.

More time passes, then with the encouragement and help of her daughter's boyfriend she enters college and applies for the nursing program.

It’s hard, a surgery forces her out of the first nursing semester, she puts off another needed surgery, trying desperately to complete the third semester but fails it by less than a point.  The school allows only one failure, so she must pass the remaining ones.  It seems as though every test is "do or die".  Maybe she should just quit.  Meanwhile she has found a number of new friends in the Topshelf chatroom.  She shares her ups and downs – and the chatroom friends, and her family, respond with support, words, thoughts, and prayers.

....and then somehow it’s December 20, 2004, the day after her 40^th birthday, the last test, the last day of class.  She passes, she has graduated college!  The impossible dream is a reality – Nurse Wills, say hello to Nurse Dlanna.