San Ramon Nurse Sings For WWII Veterans In Taiwan

SAN RAMON, CA — Nursing isn't the only thing that makes Francine Fitzgerald, of San Ramon, feel like she's connecting with people and lifting their spirits. In May she traveled to Taiwan, singing at two benefit concerts for families of Word War II veterans.

"Performing and nursing are a lot alike," she said in a San Ramon Regional Medical Center press release. "It's that heart-to-heart connection."

Fitzgerald, an occupational/employee health nurse at the center, has been with Chinese band Arthur & Cool Cats for 15 years. They performed for the "Memory Lane" concerts in Taiwan's capital, Taipei, which featured performances of mostly American songs from the 1950s and 1960s.

She was asked to sing the Chinese folk song "In a Far Away Land" — a song about a young Chinese woman who is tending to her sheep when a boy notices how beautiful she is — at the San Jose Chinese Cultural Fair a few years ago and was again asked to sing it at an international Chinese medicine conference, according to the release.

"From there, our band was invited to perform in Taipei," Fitzgerald said in the release. "Singing this beloved folk song in Chinese for the Chinese is a huge honor."