Sonoma Valley mother-daughter duo at Memorial Hospital, El Verano Elementary School

Pediatric patients and their worried families can thank a Sonoma Valley kindergarten teacher for the compassionate care they receive at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

By example and everyday practice, Barbara Marek taught her daughter, Rachel Marek, there’s no extra effort required for kindness, no matter where or what the situation.

Holding a frightened kindergartner’s hand on the first day of school is as important as reassuring a weary child hospitalized with a severe asthma attack, broken bone or chronic illness.

“You can do your job, or you can do it with love and care and passion,” said Rachel, 39, medical director of Memorial’s pediatric hospitalist program.

The mother-daughter duo makes it their business to care for children and their families, whether in the classroom at El Verano Elementary School in Sonoma Valley or the pediatrics unit at Memorial.

Barbara says there’s no greater compliment than when she and her husband, Bob Marek, run into someone who encountered their daughter at the hospital and had a positive experience despite a trying circumstance.

“We are so proud when we hear from people and they say it’s that she cared. That’s what life’s all about,” said Barbara, who is in her 60s.

Rachel credits her mother’s example. She was just a preschooler when she started making occasional visits to her mom’s classroom, watching as children responded to their teacher’s warm direction and leadership.

“My mom really inspires me,” Rachel said. “I saw her take such excellent care of us, but she’s also cared to be such a professional.”

It wasn’t by chance both women ended up working with young children. Barbara has taught kindergarten – by choice – 28 of her 30 years in education. When Rachel considered her specialty options as a doctor, pediatrics seemed a natural fit.

As older sister to three younger brothers, Rachel helped out with the boys, babysat for other families and tutored throughout college. Like her mother, she’s always loved being around kids.

She saw the difference her mother was making for children and knew in pediatrics she had the opportunity to do the same.

Both say it’s paramount in their professions to address the entire family, not simply the student or the patient. They extend their compassion outward, knowing the whole family has an impact on a child’s progress and outlook.

Plus, they say, there are teams involved in both pediatrics and teaching, with no one person assuming credit for a child getting promoted or being discharged from the hospital.

They are inspired by the other’s accomplishments but give credit to a community of parents and colleagues.

“I think about my mom all the time in how I take care of my patients,” Rachel said. “We’re all part of a bigger team. It’s about all of us working together.”

As a hospitalist, Rachel doesn’t work with many children on an ongoing basis, as she would in a private pediatrics practice. She may have only one chance to care for a child and reassure a family, something she welcomes as both challenge and opportunity.

“You’re really trying to help them through a stressful time in their life,” Rachel said. “You develop that comfort level and understanding with those patients.”

Her mother reaches out in similar ways, trying to get kindergartners to enjoy and embrace education in their earliest step. Even after three decades in teaching, she is joyful with each success.

“When a child who didn’t know a letter from a hole in the ground can read a book to you, it’s just amazing,” Barbara said. “They gain a bigger sense of self and security and comfort.”

The Mareks, who both live in Sonoma Valley, say each one is patient, nurturing and a model of professionalism. When faced with an especially trying situation, they calmly find a way to work through the challenge.

When Barbara leads parents through a student’s academic or social struggles, she offers encouragement and empathy, just as her daughter does in her work.

“It’s the very same thing, but a different genre,” Barbara said.

Always close and mutually supportive, the Mareks enjoy spending rare time off together, hiking at the Bodega headlands, attending church together, catching a meal with family or cheering for the San Francisco Giants, the Golden State Warriors or favorite Michigan teams. Rachel graduated in 2003 from the University of Michigan’s medical school after beginning her education as a Doyle scholar at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Barbara said with a laugh that Sonoma County may one day have an abundance of pediatricians. Her daughter visits her classroom every year to meet with students and discuss her career, often bringing equipment from her doctor’s bag for a show-and-tell session.

Year after year, Rachel wins over the kindergartners. Even those determined to be teachers or firefighters when they grow up vow to switch their future professions.

“They all want to be doctors when she leaves,” Barbara said.

She recalled when Rachel, as a little girl, aspired to become a crossing guard, just like the kindhearted one at her elementary school when the family lived in Southern California.

Barbara was touched that her young daughter chose someone with compassion as a role model. Although her career path changed, that foundation never did.

Whether practicing medicine, teaching kids or keeping children safe in a crosswalk, the Mareks agree a positive outlook makes all the difference.

“It’s that kindness that prevails,” Barbara said.

Contact Towns Correspondent Dianne Reber Hart at sonomatowns@gmail.com.