I graduated from Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing in 1959 and hired by Draper Corporation as an industrial nurse (an area of nursing barely touched upon in training). It was an invaluable experience in emergency treatment.
I got married in 1960, and began rearing my two daughters, born in '62 and '63. During the first few years I worked part time in private duty nursing and took my two kids with me (along with their orange slices for half-time) while I officiated girls High School basketball games in area towns.
Then I became the very first Bellingham Junior/Senior High School nurse in 1968. I was there seven years and enjoyed the vacation time and summers off with my family.
As all others do, I've endured my tribulations, one of them being a divorce after sixteen years of marriage. Do any of you remember "Bobo"? Well, time changes things. It didn't work out, but he's still a friend. As a result, my daughters and I moved to Milford. Their High School years were completed there and I had successfully interviewed for an Occupational Health Nursing position in Framingham as Prime Computer's first nurse. My experience at Draper's allowed me to set them up from scratch. This included tearing down walls for my office to ordering "soup to nuts". It was a wonderful experience for five years, different from Draper Corporation in that it was more preventative and wellness medicine and teaching such things as Basic Life Support to employees.
My kids were grown and independent and I was in a position to move to Florida. There were lots of mixed emotions, but I thought I would die every winter up north in the cold. "I was a misplaced tropical plant" (as you remember, I worked at the pond every summer during High School years, and anyone could question my lineage, and all you could see were my broken white teeth in the dark.)
And so, in 1982 I moved to Florida where my mother already lived. I loved the climate and was employed as a psychiatric nurse.
I endured some more tribulations, as we all do, one of them being a diagnosed brain tumor in 1983. It was the size of a small grapefruit. The only option being neuro-surgery with many risks, but GOD chose to make me a miracle. In spite of the risks, I turned out just a little (?) bit "whacky". Shaving my head was the hardest part. During this, and the pending challenges that GOD knew were ahead of me, I formed a very close, personal relationship with the Lord. I became a member of the Baptist Church, which was my support system, singing in the choir and utilizing all that great musical education we all got from Mrs. Reed!
I went on to become a certified Chemical Dependency Nurse (CCDN), working as the Asst. Supervisor in a Detoxification Unit in Daytona Beach for ten years. At the same time, I spent two years working with the multi-handicapped blind.
I was employed at Halifax Psychiatric Center in Daytona Beach, for eight years. I did retire (GOD was willing) from Halifax Med. Center this past February.
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