By Some things are meant to be. Logan Riesterer was dropped off at Ascension Saint Mary in Chicago when she was just a baby, but she ended up right where she needed to be.
Nestor Hermogino, who worked as the secretary in the ICU back in the early 90s, used to start each shift at the hospital praying for his family. In the chapel, he discovered the infant wrapped in a blanket on March 20, 1992.
“And I say ‘Wow, it’s a baby! It’s a baby!’” he said. The story even made it onto the nightly news. A couple, Ivorye and Donald Riesterer, quickly stepped in to adopt the child. The former teacher and retired police officer knew they wanted to grow their family and were considering adopting when the infant came into their lives.
“I fell in love with that baby. I didn’t even know her,” Ivorye Riesterer said. “And I always wanted a daughter.”
They decided to name the baby Logan and welcomed her into their home.
“Even though we didn’t know who my birth family was, I’ve always had an amazing, amazing family and amazing parents,” Logan Riesterer said.
“I had a happy childhood,” she added. “They’ve always supported me in making sure I knew where I came from. I knew my story.”
Donald said the entire community came together to make sure the baby would have a happy home. The new parents were also adamant about giving her a good education.
“We said we need a good education,” Donald Riesterer said. “She was going through school (we would ask her) ‘What would you like to be when you grow up?’”
“I always wanted to be in the medical field,” Logan Riesterer said. “This was actually my very first nursing job. (I) actually came my first day of orientation into the chapel and I walked in and felt like I had always been here, like I’d seen it before this wave of familiarity came over me. It felt like home in a way.”
She is now working as a nurse in the hospital where she first arrived as an infant over thirty years ago. She is just two floors up from Hermogino.
“When I first met Nestor, I couldn’t believe it,” Logan Riesterer said. “This is where I’m starting out my nursing career, something I’ve wanted to do for years and years and years. And it’s all kind of coming full circle and now I’m here. … How amazing is that, that somebody who comes here (to the chapel) every day, the nicest man in the world, he is the one that found me here.”
Logan even kept the blanket and dress she was wearing when she arrived at the hospital. She said she is so grateful that her adopted family took her in.
“I was healthy, I was warm, I was dressed up. I was loved,” she said. “They could have left me anywhere.”
And she hopes her birth parents are proud of her too wherever they may be.
“There’s always that question of where are they now? Are they ok? Are they still around? Are they still with us?” she said. “If I met them today, (I would say) ‘Hi, this is how I turned out. I hope it’s what you dreamed of.’ … I’m just so grateful, just so grateful for all of this.”
