CFN – June is Seniors’ month.
A nice way to honour it is to celebrate with some wonderful seniors.
There were a lot of seniors at the Legion Friday night celebrating.
It was our annual Cornwall General Hospital Alumni dinner.
The Class of 1964 celebrated fifty years.
Attending for their class were Doreen Cameron Bard, Fay Eamer Gardner, Jean Franklin Harms, Beverly Hawkins MacDonald, Patricia Ladouceur O’Duffy, Merle Macleod Macleod ,Gail McCorriston Stephenson , Wendy McRae Wert , Anna Mae Moke Robertson ,Doris Turner Ashe, Gwen Vaughn Coleman, Marion McDermid Hunt, Patricia Renwick Brown , Linda Foy Gutzman and Marilyn Edwards Fischer. The emcee was Catherine Poirier, President of the Alumni, who did a great job of keeping the evening on track.
Jean Hascall read out a poem of remembrance which she had written about some memories as student nurses. It was humorous and sentimental as well. I thought about the time I was on duty one lunch hour covering the floor while others were at lunch. A doctor came and wanted to replace a dressing on one of his patients. He appeared to be in a hurry with probably lots to do. I ran and got a sterile dressing tray for him.Then he asked for my bandage sissors to cut the gauze which was wrapped around the dressing on the patient’s arm. I didn’t have my sissors. We usually kept them on the back of our apron waist hooked into the buttons but I had forgotten them. A nurse without her bandage sissors!!!! Did he take a strip off me. I ran and got a pair from the desk but the message had gotten to me. I never forgot them again. I still have them, dull but are still in one piece. Fifty + years old.
It was also nice to see a few of my favourite nurses . Rebecca (Becky) Lama, Elaine Peddie and Gracie Andress were always so special to me as a young student nurse. They were always kind, helpful. caring , informative and very patient as well as fun to work with. I looked up to them and had hoped that one day I would be a wonderful nurse like they were. Thank you for being so great and for being there, not only for me, but for all of us a young student nurses at that time. .
We were served a wonderful chicken meal by a very pleasant group from the Legion. It was delicious and I didn’t have to cook it. Dessert came and I had to decline because it was apple crisp; I have an oat allergy. I am used to this so it didn’t bother me but one of my friends told a waitress and she came over with a big bowl of ice cream for me . It was very nice of her. We all went home with full tummies.
Please don’t forget the Help after Hours program if you need some medical Advice. 1-866-553-7205 and TTY: 1866=250-3379. You will speak with a Registered nurse who is there to help. This is offered by the Province of Ontario and if you are an enrolled or registered patient of a primary healthcare team, a nurse can also contact a doctor on call for you. Recently I was talking to a man who benefited from this service. Experiencing some mid-chest pain, he didn’t think it was bad enough to call 911 or go to the hospital. He thought maybe it was stress or some heartburn. But after awhile it didn’t go away although it didn’t get worse either. He got the phone number from the telephone book and called the Helpline. The nurse told him to call 911 right away and at least get assessed. The Paramedics took him right to the hospital where he was transferred to the Ottawa Heart Institute. He had five blockages. Who know what would have happened if he hadn’t called that number. He is very grateful today that he knew where to get that number and called it.
Here is a cute joke from the funny farm:
A city fellow was out in the country when a fog settled in and he had difficulty in seeing where he was going. All of a sudden he spotted lights of a tractor and decided to follow the farmer. The city man followed driving slowly through the fog. Suddenly, the farmer stopped and the city visitor bumped into the rear of the tractor. He became very angry because the farmer had failed to signal that he was stopping. The city fellow got out of his car, approached the farmer and yelled angrily, ‘Why didn’t you signal before you stopped?’ The farmer answered, “What? In my own barn?’
Have a good week, Dawn
Pictured above:
Front Row L to R:
Jean (Franklin) Harms, Hamilton; Marion (McDermid) Hunter, Moffat; Marilyn (Edwards) Fischer, Nepean;
Gwen (Vaughn) Coleman, Cornwall; Doreen (Cameron) Bard, Cornwall; Beverly (Hawkins) MacDonald, Peterborough.
Second Row
Gail (McCorriston) Stephenson, Lunenburg; Victoria (Savery) McLean, Ancaster; Merle (MacLeod) MacLeod, Maxville; Doris (Turner) Ashe, Cornwall; Lois (Craig) Grant, deceased.
Third Row
Mavis (Scharf) Decker, deceased; Patricia (Renwick) Brown, Cornwall; Fay (Eamer) Gardner, Whitby;
Patricia (Ladouceur) O’Duffy, Morrisburg; Wendy (McRae) Wert, Williamstown; Linda (Foy) Gutzman, Petawawa.
Fourth Row
Marilyn Wells, St. Albert AB; Nancy (Fraser) Hodgins, deceased; Marlene Wert, Director of Nursing, deceased;
Anna (Moke) Robinson, Long Sault.
Dawn people of your generation can never be replaced and you people were the greatest generation and you all lived through the Great Depression of the 30’s and you all made the great nurses that you will not find today. I remember Marlene Wert and my own eldest sister was administrative supervisor and I remember some of the stories. I was a candy striper back in the mid 60’s era but never went into nursing. I have my eldest sister’s graduating picture from the newspaper of Cornwall and kept two copies. She graduated not long after I was born (that was a long time ago). Time sure flies and I often think of the better days of Cornwall.
Yes, the previous generations were great. But let’s not forget the generations now. Nurses were and still are great. But now technology helps so much in the healthcare field now.
Hugger there is nothing like he people of that generation and the ones before them and that is the truth. Yes we have technology today and I really have to laugh at it because most nurses today are not trained using a stetescope like they used to and they rely on gadgets and still make huge mistakes and even a lot of doctors are not qualified at all. That includes many veterinarians. These people (from the past generations) knew what real work is and to be a nurse in those days was mighty hard indeed and I remember my eldest sister what she went through. I worked with many of the older nurses and you sure can’t find that same care today.
I disagree Jules. The nurses and doctors now are better prepared to deal with healthcare. Technology has helped them making more tests available to help diagnose health issues, etc.
Hugger my daughter had a doctor who travelled from Montreal to Cornwall and she never took a whole history of the family and she misdiagnosed my daughter and was treated badly down there. It wasn’t until we came to Ottawa to a really good and experienced doctor to diagnose her and take the entire family history of both sides. My daughter and I ran into a young doctor (Arab-Islamic) educated here and didn’t even know what the word “boil” was so please Hugger wake up my dear fellow because there are plenty out there who are as ignorant as can be. My daughter and I haven’t stopped laughing about this incident since and we both said that people today are in trouble when they have such people as doctors. My husband and I have heard stories of veterenarians in Cornwall who have literally killed people’s pets because they were allergic to the distemper needle and there was a red tag on the file to indicate allergies, etc. We knew the owners and we spoke about how bad they were. Things are not good at all Hugger and I wonder where they are getting their medical degree from maybe a cracker jack box.
Some have good healthcare experiences, others have bad healthcare experiences. Please don’t coat every healthcare professional with the same brush.