Who: Wendy Metzger, food services supervisor at WellSpan Surgery & Rehabilitation Hospital; Mary Ruth, a cook at the hospital; and patient Sharon Berkheiser.

What: Sharon had reconstructive ankle surgery in March at the hospital. The 76-year-old retired nurse from Yorkana was not hungry when she woke from surgery, but she chose chicken noodle soup, thinking she should eat something light that would go down easy. It did.

In fact, Sharon ordered the soup three times over the two days she was in the hospital.

“The flavor was very good. The noodles were good, and the broth hit the spot,” she says. “It wasn’t because I was nauseated. It was just good soup!”

Sharon told Wendy, who delivered her tray to her room, to please tell the cook how much she enjoyed the soup. Wendy went a step further.

She asked Mary to ladle out a quart of soup for Sharon to take home with her. Wendy brought the soup in a container, wrapped in ice, to Sharon shortly before she got discharged.

“I couldn’t believe it! It just really helped,” Sharon says, adding with a laugh, “I ate it for dinner that night and I was kind enough to share it with my husband.”

Sharon is not the only fan of Mary’s chicken soup. In fact, it’s kind of famous (along with the hospital’s crabcakes and egg custard). Mary makes about 3 gallons a week for patients and another 6 or 7 gallons for the nearby WellSpan Heart and Vascular Center, which sells it by the quart (frozen). She loves to cook and feels proud that patients enjoy her food.

Words to live by: Sharon said she was pleased with her whole experience at the hospital.

“Even one of my physical therapists called me once, just to check up on me. I said, ‘I know this is your job’ and she said, ‘No, it’s not. I just wanted to find out how you were doing!’ I found that general attitude. Without exception, people seemed to look at me not just as patient, but as a person. And they wanted to invest themselves in me. They were caring for my whole person.”

That care doesn’t end at the hospital door, Wendy says.

“When people go home, they need something to eat,” she says. “I told Sharon, ‘Now you don’t have to worry about supper tonight.’ Soup is comfort food. It’s what people eat when they are sick.”

Both Wendy and Mary have worked in food service for decades. They have sent other patients home with their favorite dishes, wrapped up with some TLC. It’s what they do.

“If you find that thing that people love, we try to provide it if we can,” Wendy says.

“We love our jobs,” Mary says. “We love making patients happy.”

(From left) Mary Ruth, Sharon Berkheiser, and Wendy Metzger, holding the famous chicken soup!