After 24  years, Brenda Higginbotham has decided to enter into retirement.

Higginbotham has spent the last 24 years working for Dr. Kent Taylor at Fresenius Kidney Care in Selma as a clinical manager.

“I managed the outpatient clinic,” said Higginbotham. “Patients that kidneys don’t work anymore we did their Dialysis three days a week. We had to manage their care under the management of the medical director. We made sure they got their treatment every other day, and worked with the company and the state and keeping the staff on hand.”

Higginbotham said that needs at home helped make her decision to retire.

“After I take a little time I will work maybe a weekend a month to keep my licensing over at one of the other clinics,” she said. “Dr. Taylor has grown that one small clinic into two clinics in Selma and one in Wilcox County.

“Everybody has been so good to me and we have taken care of a lot of people,” she said. “I will never forget I was working midnight shift, and I saw the ad for the day job.”

Taylor said that Higginbotham was one of the few nurses to be certified in Dialysis that she completed on her own.

“Way back when, the Nurses Society of Dialysis started certification, and she was one of the first to complete that certification,” said Taylor. “She was one of the first to start that trend in the area.”

“It has been a journey,” she said. “It has been a great journey. We have helped a lot of folks along the way. I love my patients dearly, and it has been real emotional. I just appreciate everything. Dr. Taylor and I have been through a lot together.”

“She has done everything a clinical nurse and clinical manager could do and then some,” said Taylor. “She has been a star and she will be hard to replace.”