Theona Leonard Andersen '45W

Theona Leonard Andersen '45W sent in this story by way of her daughter. Theona's story:

"Ours was a World War Two class and this seemed to affect every phase of our training. We felt we were part of the 'war effort' because we were caring for the families and friends of our service men. So we worked hard -- and grew tired.

Perhaps this is why a classmate of mine, working at night in the nursery, absentmindedly boiled up every single one of the nursery thermometers. The head nurse just said, 'these things happen' and ordered replacements.

As some of us remember, hospital routines were different than those today. Night duty nurses sterilized (autoclaved or boiled up) a lot of things. This could be rather tiring particularly in the hot summers. (All of us thought it deplorable that every bar had air conditioning but hospitals did not.)

At the end of our first year, seventy registered nurses left New Haven Hospital to go to the South Pacific. After this our class pretty much ran the hospital on evening and night shifts. Retired graduate nurses would come in to care for extremely ill patients and they were incredibly good nurses. Businessmen from town volunteered to act as orderlies during evenings and nights, and they were a wonderful help.

One night, a classmate and I were on duty in a ward full of elderly patients. My classmate went out with a cart in the darkened ward to collect drinking glasses to be washed and returned. When she got back I heard her say 'Oh! No!' Right in the middle of the cart were dentures in a glass, and we had been told over and over to be very careful of dentures.

Just then, a patient put on her light and I went to see what was needed. 'Nurse! I can't find my false teeth,' she said. Thankfully I replied 'I'll bring them to you right away.'

Another night I was alone on a small ward full of elderly men. The night supervisor came and told me the invasion of France had started. My patients slept rather poorly, so as they would wake up I'd whisper the news to them. The rest of the night, as I went back and forth, I would hear these men whispering prayers for our Service Men, as I was also.

We have always been proud of the fact that in spite of rationing and shortages and things like the whole east coast (and many miles inland) being 'blacked out' at night to protect shipping -- no lights anywhere -- we always managed to give good patient care. The bedside stands may have been dusted infrequently, but we always tried to give the best patient care possible."

Thanks to Theona for that great account, and to her daughter, Martha, for taking the time to send it in.