GVHS Logo

Up the Gatineau! Selected Articles

Up the Gatineau! Article

This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 18.

Reminiscences of Nursing at Gatineau Memorial Hospital: 1952 and 1953

Norma Geggie

The fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Gatineau Memorial Hospital at Wakefield, Quebec, was marked on March 1, 1992. The author was one of the original Australian nurses, Norma Callander. She married Dr. Stuart Geggie in 1954 and still resides in Wakefield.

Betty Culley was the first nurse to be hired prior to the opening of the Gatineau Memorial Hospital in March 1952. Trained in Montreal hospitals and fluently bilingual, Miss Culley was on hand to see the setting up of the wards. the emergency and delivery rooms. and the nursery for newborns. as well as the employment of her prospective staff. Lucille and Thérèse Gingras of Masham were enlisted, as well as several married women of the area who had worked as trained nurses prior to marriage: Evelyn Trowsse of Wakefield, Ann Cole of Cascades, and later. Dorothy Strojich of Ironsides.

Gatineau Memorial Hospital
Gatineau Memorial Hospital showing members of the Canadian Legion at the monument, 1952. (GVHS 1654.21/13)

In the summer of that year, the Women's Institute, which had given tireless support to the opening of the hospital, held the first garden party on its grounds. An immense success, it was the precursor of an annual event which was to become the social highlight of the summer, and a great fund-raising source. Also, at that first garden party, Dr. Harold Geggie met Frances Hardy of Ironsides, and immediately recruited her services. She had trained in Ottawa, and had many years of bedside nursing experience in New York hospitals. Fran Hardy went on to act as matron after Betty Colley‘s departure in late 1953, and remained in that position until her retirement in 1976.

Towards the end of 1952, the hospital was advertising through the Canadian Immigration Department in London, England, for trained nurses. Jeannette Forsyth and Norma Callander, who had trained in Australia and nursed in England for a year or more, responded and sailed in January 1953 to join the staff. They were trained in midwifery and operating room techniques, and came at a time when the hospital was finding the need to have visiting surgeons from Ottawa perform emergency surgery, so gradually a new aspect of the hospital developed. They were also the first of many overseas nurses.

Hannah Kling and Leisel Streck from Germany arrived in the early months of 1953. As they spoke little or no English, each was "doubled" with an Australian nurse on evening or night duty. This seems an interesting combination, and one wonders now how the patients fared, particularly those who spoke and understood only French.

The hospital was still young, and routines not fully developed. One of the new Aussie nurses, on her first solo evening shift, decided to signal the end of the visiting hour by ringing a patient's handbell, as had been the custom in other hospitals where she had nursed. Immediately, a dozen heads appeared in doorways and almost without bidding farewell to the equally startled patients, the visitors hurriedly made their exit. It had obviously been a "first". On another occasion the same nurse noticed two young men heading upstairs to the restricted area of the maternity ward. She politely asked who they wished to see and explained that visitors were restricted to husbands or fathers. "Well. I'm the husband," said one, “and I‘m the father," replied the other. With such surprising honesty, she had little choice but to allow each of them to have visiting privileges.

Before the days of the ubiquitous "Ma Bell“ telephone system, there were many lines shared by numerous subscribers. The hospital was no exception as it shared a line with two of the doctors as well as with an occasional secretary of theirs. Thelma and Harvey Ryan owned and operated one of the small telephone companies in the area. When Thelma was delivered of her fourth son in the Gatineau Memorial Hospital, Harvey arranged that he would phone her one evening, but indicated that he would signal her with five short rings. Thelma duly got to the phone to answer her call, but so did Dr. Harold, Dr. Hans, the downstairs nurse on duty, and Miss Birdie Robb.

In these days the twenty-bed facility was not always filled to capacity. On more than one occasion Dr. Harold drove in with a rather derelict case. The chart would read "pneumonia — full diet, bathroom privileges.” The nurse would supervise a hot bath and a hearty meal. The next morning, after the patient had been served an equally hearty breakfast, the doctor would be on hand with a new set of clothes, and the "pneumonia case" would be duly discharged, looking a picture of health and happiness after the miraculous cure.

The summer of 1953 brought the addition of a medical student who was to work with the doctors and act as an intern at the hospital. Brian Catterall, a McGi1l third year student, was the first of innumerable others to profit from this experience. The hospital atmosphere was harmonious; three of the four doctors Geggie were on staff. Dr. Kearns of Kazabazua had admitting privileges and Drs. Ken Wilson and Bill Cavan of Ottawa made themselves available for general surgery when necessary. This was before the benefits of government-supported universal health service. These surgeons often asked, as the final sutures were being inserted, if they should submit a bill, and if informed that the patient could not afford a surgical fee, they accepted the fact that their drive up the Gatineau and the hour or so in the operating room was a charitable gesture. The patient still received every consideration.

The small nursing staff worked cooperatively; it was customary for all to pile into Fran Hardy's car after 4 p.m. and drive to Carman's Lake for a swim. It was not unusual for a doctor to take a mop and help with the clean-up of the emergency room after a traumatic case, nor for a nurse to work a double shift to special a woman with toxemia of pregnancy. The community was welcoming and generous in opening its homes to the many overseas young nurses. And they readily became part of that community, learning to ski and to square-dance and participating in the Women's Institute theatrical productions or the Glee Club (choir).

Nursing staff with doctors
Nursing staff with doctors at Gatineau Memorial Hospital, about l956.

After two years‘ internship and surgical studies in England, Dr. Stuart Geggie joined his brothers and father in the practice in 1954, having spread the word of nursing opportunities to staff in some of the hospitals in which he had worked. Consequently, in twos, threes and fours, groups of British-trained nurses joined the now cosmopolitan staff: Elizabeth McFaul, June Wagner, Pamela Greenhalgh, and later on Joan Ivory, Elizabeth Palmer, Joyce Doust; then Colette Perron from France, Geisela Eiserer from Austria, nurses from central Europe and groups of Australians as word spread about this little “Shangri-La“ in the Gatineau. These nurses remained on staff for a year or two, serving the community well, before moving on to see more of the world.

Although somewhat outnumbered, there were Canadian nurses: Janet Sproule, newly graduated from Ottawa, and Mae Anderson and Lois Golding, both married women from the village. Without this most valuable service of “ex-nurses“ who were busy wives and mothers, but who also filled vacancies on staff, sometimes on short notice, the hospital could hardly have functioned. They continue to be indispensable.

Many of the overseas nurses have remained in Canada. Only one of these first nurses remains on staff in 1992: Lucille Gingras Fournier who began her association with the hospital forty years ago.


Volume 18 table of content.

Return to List of articles