B.C.’s plans to train more nurses is a positive step toward strengthening our ailing health system. Nurses are the heart of health care. They are special. The following three are my examples.
My mother began her nursing career in a veteran’s hospital in Quebec during the First World War. She married a patient, and the two headed west.
After roaming a while, they settled on Quadra Island on the B.C. coast. Once residents knew she was a nurse, she was called on for everything from delivering babies to patching up injuries. She didn’t get any salary but grateful patients gave her gifts ranging from baked goods to cords of wood.
My first homes in the Cariboo were in the Chilcotin, a long way from doctors, but there was a Red Cross Hospital at Alexis Creek, staffed by a registered nurse.
When we lived there the RN was Kathleen Telford. The daughter of a local pioneer rancher, she ran the ranch before “retiring” to run the hospital.
Nothing fazed her. She was always “on call.” She saw our family through numerous illnesses, broken bones, a paralytic tick bite, and the birth of my fourth son.
At our next stop, Anahim Lake, the health system was Sister St. Paul, a Catholic missionary who had been a nurse in the Congo. When son number fell into an outside fire and burned his arm, Sister was the first stop, and she bandaged his arm.
Back home with him, I was nervous so I phoned the doctor in Bella Coola. He asked if we’d seen Sister. When I said yes, he said “no use bringing him down here, if she couldn’t fix it I’d have to send him to Vancouver.” Son doesn’t even have a scar.
My three specials were kind, caring, resourceful people. I believe all nurses are.
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