Like daughter, like mother.

When Nancy Cameron graduated from the University of North Carolina’s School of Nursing on Sunday, she followed a path charted by her daughter.

Cameron’s daughter, Kim, graduated from the UNC School of Nursing in 1991. The younger Cameron went on to earn her master’s at UNC in 1996 — a degree the elder Cameron plans to take up after a much-deserved break.

“Kim and I are going down to Florida after graduation,” said Nancy Cameron, who lives in Southern Pines. “Right now I’m a little tired of school and need a break from it. I need to get away from everything for a while. ”

The “everything” Cameron refers to includes commuting to UNC while holding down a job at Moore Regional Hospital — a feat Cameron successfully pulled off at an age when most people are closer to retirement than a burgeoning new career.

Now 54, Cameron had known since 1963 that she wanted to be a nurse. She was 18 and had spent four months in Moore County Hospital with a serious illness.

So touched by the care and compassion of her nurses, Cameron decided there was no profession more noble than a nurse.

But her plans were waylaid by a marriage and the births of five children. Cameron put aside her dreams and worked diligently as a mother and wife.

Years later, fate intervened in the form of a divorce.

Suddenly faced with the awesome responsibility of raising her five children alone, Cameron needed money. She went to work at the same hospital where her occupational inspiration originally took root — now known as FirstHealth Moore Regional.

While employed with FirstHealth, Cameron attended Sandhills Community College on a part-time basis and earned an associate nursing degree in 1992.

“I started out working on the medical surgical unit but was drawn to oncology,” Cameron said. “As far as getting my bachelor’s degree at UNC, I started commuting and working toward that last spring.”

The toughest thing for Cameron in going to UNC was not the most obvious — such as the long commute to Chapel Hill every day, the age difference between Cameron and her classmates or trying to hold down a job while going to school.

The major obstacle she had to overcome was mastering the computer.

“I had a horrible time trying to learn how to use a computer,” Cameron said. “The only time I even considered quitting was when I had to do an assignment in the computer lab at Carolina. My classmates tried to help me, but they were using terms I had never heard before.

“Finally, the school provided a nice lady who tutored me on how to use the computer. And all my kids chipped in and bought me a computer to makes things easier. That was a godsend. I don’t know how I could have done everything without my own computer.”

All of Cameron’s children helped her on the road to her degree, but none more than Kim.

Kim lives in Houston, Texas, and has helped her mother from afar. She is working on her doctorate from the University of Texas at Houston.

With her nursing experience and “been there, done that” philosophy, Kim became a mentor for her mother.

“I called on Kim a lot,” Cameron said “She was such a huge help and inspiration to me. And one of my other children, Chris, pitched in, too. She did a lot of my typing for me. In addition to not being very computer-literate, I’m also not much of a typist. Believe me, I couldn’t have done this without the support of my family.”

Cameron also became a mentor for some of her classmates. As the oldest student in most of her classes, it was only natural that some of the younger students would adopt Cameron as a surrogate “mom.”

“I was the old lady in class, but my classmates treated me great,” Cameron said. “They treated me like an equal, which I really appreciated because I was so much older than everybody else.”

With her future wide open, Cameron has several enticing options to consider. She plans on pursuing her master’s degree and translating that into a possible teaching position at Sandhills, or perhaps working for Hospice.

Whatever Cameron decides, she is secure in the fact that the toughest part of finally realizing a girlhood dream is over.