August 3, 1931 – March 29, 2025
Seen Years Vol. 2 No. 5 – May 2017
THE GIFT OF BEING A NURSE
By Joy Auren
“It was 1954 and I was looking through the Canadian Nurse Magazine when I saw that the Dryden Red Cross Hospital needed nurses.” says Lou Murray. Back in those days Canada was getting a lot of their nurses from England and Scotland and I was from New Brunswick, but I applied anyway and received a job offer.
It was a lovely letter from Dorothy Rourke, the Director of the Dryden Red Cross Hospital that made all the difference. It was nicely worded and so inviting that I felt welcome before I even got there. So, I packed my bags, said my goodbyes and when I boarded the CPR passenger train, I didn’t know what to expect other than a long ride. I was amazed by the vast stretches of wilderness, no towns every few miles like we had in NB. just miles and miles of breathtaking scenes of Canadian lakes and forest.
Arriving in a taxi at 2:00 a.m., I was a little nervous about my first introduction with the girls at the Nurses Residence. I wanted to be sure to put my best foot forward and I knew that you never got a second chance to make a good first impression, so I donned my high heels, a hat, white gloves and pearls and nervously exited the taxi to start my Nursing Career in Dryden. It was January 1955, a cold winter night and there had been a dreadful lung condition that swept through the community stealing the lives of young innocents and leaving a somber tone throughout the residence. I listened as they told their stories and we all shared the gripping sorrow of loss that somehow united us as a group and our sisterhood.
They were a wonderful group of nurses, kind, congenial and faithful to their work and I knew that I had made the right decision to move to Dryden. By the time I had the opportunity to deliver a baby, I knew that someday I would like to be a mom. What I couldn’t have imagined was the elation I’d feel after holding that first little girl and knowing that I had helped to bring her into this world. That little girl also became a nurse and it brought me to tears when I saw her standing behind the counter in her nurses uniform many years later.
Being a nurse absolutely helped me as a Mom. It was a gift and I loved everything about it. Bill and I were blessed to have four wonderful children: Peggy, Betty, Kathy and John and now we have 11 grandchildren and one great grandson.
To this day, as I meander through Dryden and bump into many that I helped bring into this world, the one thing I know for sure is that all of those babies were bright and beautiful and they always will be to me.”
A Funeral Mass took place Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 10am at St. Therese of the Child Jesus Chapel. Interment followed in the Dryden Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to the DRHC Oncology Department, PO Box 3003, Dryden, ON P8N 2Z6
