Countess LuAnn de Lesseps

Star of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York City” and author of the etiquette book Class with the Countess

I will never forget my first job. Coming from a family of seven kids, if I wanted pocket money, I had to work for it. So when I turned fourteen, I got my first paying job washing dishes at a nursing home. Because I couldn’t drive yet, my mother would pick me up after work, and when she was late, I would visit with the residents.

The Countess taping a table etiquette segment for “The Steve Harvey Show” which will air on October 22nd on NBC.

I fell in love and became friends with many of the nursing home’s residents and I decided that, someday, I would become a nurse’s aid. When I graduated high school, I became a licensed practical nurse…and that was myfirst real job right out of school.

Regardless of where life has taken me, from New York to Europe and back again, I never regretted working in that rest home because it showed me that nursing was my calling. Being a nurse has helped me in so many ways. It helped me raise my children and it made me realize how fortunate we are to wake up each morning with our health. Giving back to people, especially elderly people who can feel so vulnerable and alone, changed my life forever.