CANORA - “It was like we just saw each other the day before. We had fun looking through old pictures, brings to mind old stories.”
After not seeing each other for about 10 years, Joy Stusek of Canora traveled to Brandon to get together with her fellow 1955 Brandon General Hospital nursing school graduates Rose Evans and Zenny Burton in August.
It had been 72 years since the trio had first met as 18-year-olds at the start of the three-year nursing school program in 1952.
“You had to have your Grade 12, and you had to be 21 to graduate,” recalled Stusek. “I was actually too young for the program right after high school, so I worked at Eaton’s in Brandon for a year.”
Stusek (née Brown) was born in Moosomin and grew up on the family farm in the Tantallon, Sask. area, south of Esterhazy.
“We moved to Brandon after the Second World War,” said Stusek. “Dad had sold the farm to a soldier returning from the war. I was about in Grade 8 at the time.”
As she got older, Stusek said she considered a few options for her career path.
“My mother, Dorothea Brown, was a teacher, but that didn’t appeal to me. I was thinking about being a stewardess/flight attendant. But one of the friends I made in Brandon had a sister who was taking psychiatric nursing, and that started my interest in nursing.”
Looking back, Stusek points to one thing the threesome had in common, which may have been why they got along so well.
“We were all country kids,” she said. “Rose was quiet and shy, Zenny was the most outspoken. I tended to be shy as well, but I think Zenny may have rubbed off on me over the years.”
“When we got our caps after six months in the program in a ceremony at a little Brandon church, Miss Jackson was nursing director. She wanted someone to respond to her welcome. Zenny said, ‘Joy if you do this welcome, I will do the valedictory address,’ which was three years later at graduation. She was always thinking.”
Stusek said nursing school taught her about learning to get along with different people. Upon advancing from one year to the next, they would get a different room and a different roommate.
“After second year, we got white shoes and stockings. That was a big deal. We didn’t have to wear those black stockings anymore.”
Since Stusek’s last name was Brown at the time, she always had to be the first to make the move when they rotated to a new area; pediatrics, psychiatry, and so on.
“Yeah, I was always the guinea pig,’ said Stusek with a laugh. “But there were some benefits, too. In the men’s psychiatric ward, I learned sign language. And I also learned how to play poker.”
Experience from nursing school taught students a lot about what it was going to be like after graduation.
“Brandon General was a teaching hospital,” said Stusek. “Doctors and nursing staff taught us. You might work a night and have an 8 a.m. class, then turn around and go back to work the next night. It prepared us for the working world.”
The student nursing uniforms included basic blue dresses that had been patched over and over again.
“Uniforms over the dresses were stiff with starch and very uncomfortable,” said Stusek. “The rules included that your hair had to be up off your collar.”
But the nursing students still found ways to have fun, sometimes after classes at the Brandon Mental Hospital.
“We went there on a city bus,” said Stusek. “One time after the class we decided to go to a movie. I still remember looking down the row in the theatre. All my classmates were sleeping during the movie, they were so tired.”
Stusek recalled that they received money for living expenses: $6 for first year, $7 for second year, and $8 for third year.
“If you were careful, you might have enough for a movie once in a while.”
At the nurses’ residence, the rule was that they had to sign in and be there by 10 p.m. Of course, not everyone followed that rule to the letter.
“Zenny had a room just off the balcony,” said Stusek. “Just to avoid getting caught, people would sneak in late and ended up stepping on her face a lot.”
During her third year, Stusek had a memorable experience while doing a two-month rotation at the Ninette, Man. sanitarium.
“I had to work nights over New Year’s Eve. Someone brought in liquor and the Christmas tree somehow caught fire. Being a country girl, I just picked up a wet mop and beat out the fire, didn’t bother to call fire department.
“One patient had a fish. The next morning it was upside down and floating, dead. He was so upset, someone poured in liquor into the water.”
After graduation, Stusek worked for a year in pediatrics at Brandon General Hospital
“Then I got a job in Chilliwack, B.C. in pediatrics. I was there for a year and we had lots of babies, that was a good education. I hadn’t travelled much, so it was a real adventure, going to B.C. and see all the sights.”
Stusek returned for her parents’ (John & Dorothea Brown) 25th wedding anniversary and to visit her friend Zenny. She was hired at the hospital in Canora, and ended up working there on and off for the rest of her nursing career. Stusek and her classmates were treated quite differently from today’s female nurses.
“When you had a baby you had to quit, come back and start all over at the bottom of the pay scale.”
Stusek said she has enjoyed her nursing career, especially the opportunity to meet so many people.
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