Canada’s Nursing Sisters

CONT’D

helping with the operations and everything.” While working at the Hospital in England, she took care of the son of the headmaster of the school where the hospital was and developed a bond with one of the soldiers she was taking care of and his wife. “My mother never talked about anyone in particular that I can remember, but a lady named Elinor sent her a postcard and her husband was one of my mom’s patients. Elinor worked at the same hospital as my mom in England.”

The town that she was working in experienced bombings, including one bomb that flew right by the hospital window and caught Irene’s eye. “A bomb went off close to the hospital. I remember her telling me it was cold and she had a blanket wrapped around her. She was doing night duty and she saw the bomb pass by. I’m not sure if it exploded or not.”

While her mother didn’t talk about the war that much, she did tell her heart wrenching stories about the wounded soldiers coming back from battle to go to the hospital. “They would get off the landing craft where they were waiting for help and they would get shot; they couldn’t move and they were dragged back out to sea. She was told these stories when the wounded made it to the hospitals.”

After returning home from the war in the spring of 1946, Irene lived in Edmonton where she taught at the University of Alberta. In 1947, she moved to Toronto where she met Lesley’s father. “They married in

1949 and moved to Montreal where I was born in 1950.” She continued to work as a nurse at the Jewish Hospital and was in charge of several clinics.

Irene is only one of thousands of woman that bravely left their life behind in Canada to help take care of our fellow soldiers.

Today, they are referred to as Canada’s Nursing Officer’s and they continue to serve with the Canadian Armed Forces Medical Service in Canada and abroad. Their significant role in these conflicts, amongst various others, will always be remembered.