As Jennifer Armstrong was rushed down a hallway at the Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata, Washington, following a collapse on the emergency room floor, her thoughts were not of her own health.

“What about the people in Room 4?” she asked.

The Umatilla nurse practitioner — who was affiliated with multiple hospitals, including Good Shepherd Health Care System and Columbia Basin — had been suturing a patient Jan. 29, when she had “the worst headache of her life” according to her husband, Mark Keith, and fell to the floor, having suffered a brain aneurysm.

She was transported by LifeFlight to Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle, where she died Jan. 31.

At 51 years old, Armstrong left behind decades of service to her community as well as communities abroad, throughout Oregon, Washington and even Mexico, with the intention of giving patients an opportunity to pursue the encore in their lives.

This is where she got the name for her company, Encore Wellness 4 Life, a series of clinics spanning Oregon and Washington.

Keith recounted the story of his wife’s epiphany for the name.

“She had said to me, ‘In those 23 years of working already, when I was going room to room, everybody told me they wished they had traveled more,” he said.

“They wished they had done things more and not waited until they retired, and then they couldn’t do it. So as I was telling them to live their encore, they told me how to live mine,’ and she lived it to the maximum for every year she was alive.”

Armstrong and her family made it their mission to enjoy their lives, helping others while doing so. Trips to Mexico were accompanied by donations of equipment to fire departments in need of gear, and visits with friends were briefly interrupted by Heimlich maneuvers.

Many speakers outlined Armstrong’s balancing act of enjoying life and helping others during her memorial service Saturday, Feb. 18, at Umatilla High School.

“Everyone I come across tells me about how much my mom either saved their life, their mother’s life, their husband’s life or father’s life, she never failed to put others before herself,” said Amy Armstrong, her daughter.

Numerous people approached the podium to tell their own stories about how Armstrong’s life had impacted theirs.

“I’ve thought about this for the last week or two,” Caylon Haggard said. “When I lose someone, I always think, ‘What can I learn from them?’ And the last thing I texted Jennifer was ‘Thank you,’ and that she was an amazing person. I’ve never had a complaint from a patient or staff. Everyone sings her praises. And I think she taught me that.”

Haggard, a physician assistant in Grand Coulee, Washington, worked with Armstrong through the Kansas-based Docs Who Care, a company that partners with local hospitals by providing health care workers for staffing.

However, no one sang Armstrong’s praises higher than her husband, who set up a website for people to submit their stories for all to see.

“We just want to have that as a reminder of the most renowned nurse practitioner in the Pacific Northwest, who created a culture of compassion and treated everyone in health care appropriately,” Keith said.

Armstrong’s contributions to communities included service as a registered nurse medic for several years at the Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District, eight years with the Morrow County Health District and nine months with the Boardman Fire Rescue District. She also spent 15 years as the medical on-call director for a detox facility and worked as the medical provider for eight jails throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Armstrong’s extensive resume granted her a packed house at her memorial.

“Jennifer wouldn’t have been comfortable with all this fuss over her,” Roak Dale TenEyck said. “She was so humble. She didn’t like or want a bunch of attention. Some of them say that this is more for us.”

Nevertheless, bleachers full of touched lives paid their respects, listening, laughing and crying as others recounted stories of what Armstrong achieved and accomplished in her 51 years.