Nursing alumnae celebrate reunions
By Justin Seward on June 14, 2022.
Close to 130 St. Michael’s School of Nursing alumnae covened Saturday morning to have a social and reminisce about their experiences at the Sandman Lethbridge Lodge.“What happens when they get together is you reminisce about days in your early training years,” said Connie Watmough, alumni president.
“And a lot of us now, we don’t get to see each other and we email.”
There were alumnae being celebrated from 1956 to 1973.
“Now we’re down to 50 (year reunion), 55, 65,” she said.
“That’s the oldest class is 50 now or will be next year and some of them got good attendance, some don’t.”
The school closed in 1973 after 20 years of being open, as the program shifted. Watmough said they usually meet every year.
“And now what’s happened is we’re trying to amalgamate all the classes that have missed for the last three years,” said Watmough.
“But we’re still acknowledging the classes that would be reunion-ing this year. So, the last class that graduated was 1963 but the first class graduated in 1956.”
Watmough said a lot of these people now haven’t been back to a reunion and they’re becoming quite elderly and well over 80.
“And they’ve come back from all over— the United States and all of Canada,” she said.
While there is an annual reunion, there is one every five years for each class.
“If you graduated in 1956, five years later you would have your five-year reunion,” she said.
Alumnae had the opportunity to flip through an archives book which was organized years ago with each class.
“In each class, every five years would write their reunion report up,” she said.
“Well, because it was ran by the Sisters, they were very strict with us,” said Watmough of her memories.
“You had curfews. We had …to be in by 11 p.m. and that was a big thing. When you went to the hospital, we worked on the floors as a student learning different things — making the beds and that type of thing. It was different back then, you had to make sure that there was water at the bed side and stuff like that.”
She said you had more besides nursing back then.
“You did everything for them. Now they don’t as much,” she said.
Jackie Evans was a part of the delayed 60-year reunion after COVID shut down the initial one two years ago.
“Ours was a three-year program to become an RN (registered nurse) and we lived in residence the whole time,” she recalled.
“Most of us were in double rooms, and then when they became seniors we got to have a private room and then we graduated and then we spread all across Canada mostly and now we’re back for our reunion.”
She said it’s been wonderful to think back on some of the memories.
“We were discussing too how nursing and how medicine has changed over the years and how patients are no longer in the hospital as long as they used to be,” she said.
“Like a knee surgery used to take a week or more and now they’re in overnight and home the next day. So nursing today, the patients who are in the hospital are much sicker. The turnover is quicker than it was back then.” 2
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