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Memories of old Stanton Employees of Yellowknife's old hospital planning 25-year reunion next summerKatherine Hudson Northern News Services Published Wednesday, Oct 03, 2012
Obstetrics and surgery shared a common desk, down the hall the doctors' change room could be found, the operating room was off to the right and, up a ramp, there was the emergency department. She remembers lightning lighting up a patient's room one stormy August night - the windows ran up the walls, from her hip to the ceiling. Rapley chuckles as she reminisces about nurses scurrying around the one-storey facility slamming windows shut whenever a helicopter was about to land. The parking lot wasn't paved and dust would enter the hospital if the windows weren't secured. These memories and many more will emerge one June weekend next year when the staff of the old Stanton Yellowknife Hospital, which was located where Aven Manor now sits, will reunite in the city 25 years after the old hospital shut its doors in the summer of 1988. A planning committee made up of a handful of employees from the old hospital is putting the word out to anyone who worked at Stanton Hospital prior to 1988. Rapley was 25 years old and bored of her life in Calgary when she decided to take a chance on the "Northern wild." She started out as a clerk in 1977 at Stanton, then advanced to become a licensed practical nurse in 1980-81, and in 1992, became a registered nurse. "We were like a big family and everybody cared about everybody else. You made friends really fast. You made life-long friends in a lot of cases. People met the love of their life up here and stayed here," she said. Rapley worked at both the old and new hospitals in the city, having retired just this past spring. The old hospital was much smaller in staff as well as in size. Many of the staff lived in either nurses' residence or in hospital housing such as Matonabee Manor, McNiven Place or Fort Gary apartments. You never lived more than a five-minute walk from work, she said. "Everyone knew absolutely everybody. Right from dietary and housekeeping right on up to the chiefs of staff and the director of patient care. Everyone was on a first-name basis. The administrator sat with you for coffee. It was such a good time. They got involved in every bit of foolishness that was going on," she said. Some foolishness Rapley remembers are bed races down Franklin Avenue as part of Aboriginal Day festivities, April Fool's Day pranks with the lab technicians and merriment at the staff Christmas parties. Along with the social aspects of work came unmatchable experience, said Rapley. "We had great patient care, everybody cared. I learned so much from the greatest nurses I ever worked with. They inspired me to go into nursing," she said. Sheila Humphrey is on the planning committee of the upcoming reunion. The dates are set for June 28 to 30. There are many staff members of the old hospital still in town, between 50 and 100, Rapley said, but creating a set event for everyone to come together will be something really special. "We just wanted to get together and reminisce," said Humphrey, who worked at the old hospital from 1984-86 and again in the spring of 1988. She is now the acting executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. "There's enough interest so we're moving forward in the finalizing of plans." Venues aren't secured just yet, but the plans are taking shape. A meet-and-greet will be held on Friday, June 28 and a dinner and dance is scheduled for Saturday, June 29. "We're trying to get the word out as best we can," said Humphrey. "I have fabulous memories. I was a new nurse. It was tremendous learning for me ... It's still one of my favourite places that I've worked over the years." Anyone interested in attending the reunion can register online at www.stantonyk25.com. "I'd like to see those people come back and see what their memories are and have them see how Yellowknife has grown and just touch base with them again," said Rapley.
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