 | Home page |  | Text size |  | E-mail this page |
Stanton Hospital workers reunite 25th reunion draws 100 people from outside Yellowknife
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 5, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
In 1985, Heather Leslie followed her husband to Yellowknife from northern Ontario to work at Stanton Hospital as a nurse.
Helen White, left, Daphne Landry and Heather Leslie, worked as nurses at the old Stanton Hospital during the 1980s, they attended the 25th Stanton Hospital Reunion dance on Saturday. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo |
Her husband worked, and still works, in the hospital's laboratory, but Leslie retired in 2011 after 28 years between the hospital and Yellowknife Health and Social Services.
On Saturday she joined nearly 200 other past Stanton workers at a reunion to commemorate 25 years since the old hospital on Franklin Avenue was shut down in favour of Stanton Territorial Hospital.
Leslie remembers a tight-knit group of nurses and doctors who would work hard and play just as hard. She recalled the staff all having children around the same time and raising them together, and hosting Halloween dances that are hard to forget.
"Some of the dances were just crazy, the costumes were outrageous," she remembered. "And the doctors were just as crazy as the rest of us, y'know."
The small size of the old hospital is what brought the workers closer together, said Leslie.
"There was a smaller amount of staff too, so we had more cohesion," she said.
A particular memory she brought up was the reaction of the director of nursing during a case when the hospital was flooded because of rain. Whenever it rained they had pails to contain water that dripped down from the ceiling, but this particular time the pails weren't enough.
"She always wore these red high heels," said Leslie. "And I remember seeing her barefoot with a mop in her hand."
Leslie was on the planning committee that had been putting the reunion together for more than a year. She said the turnout was more than they'd hoped for.
"It's just amazing that so many people came," said Leslie. "It's nice to see people you worked with again."
There were 70 Yellowknife residents at the reunion and about 100 people from out of town.
Mary Anderson is one of the 100.
She came from her home in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., to visit her brothers Bob and Patrick Balsillie and for the chance to see her past co-workers.
Her sister in law, Linda Balsillie, registered her for the reunion and she went with her husband to meet with old friends and reminisce.
Anderson was born in Fort Resolution and moved to Yellowknife in 1945 to further her education. She moved south to study nursing at Edmonton's Misericordia Hospital, and moved back to Yellowknife in 1954.
She worked at Stanton Hospital for 10 years before moving south to Alberta with her husband where she raised her family. Anderson said she missed Yellowknife once she'd moved away.
"I liked it, it was my first experience working in a small hospital," recalled Anderson. "And it was a great experience for me, especially because I knew so many of the people."
| 
