When I heard about a reunion being held this month for all graduates of the old St. Edward’s Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, it made me want to reconnect with three student nurses my mom met during a brief stay at St. Edward’s in 1951. I hadn’t been in touch with any of them since shortly after my mother died in March 2001.

After she met Hattie Bedwell, Lorene Tinney and Betty Elmore, Mom naturally invited them to dinner at our house. When they all three accepted and showed up, they were immediately "adopted" by my parents, Roy and Euneva Poynor.

Hattie was from Muldrow, Lorene from Gans and Betty from West Texas. They were just out of high school. For the next three years, when they weren’t at the hospital (now Mid-Town Apartments east of Immaculate Conception Church on Rogers) or the nurses quarters behind it, they were usually at our house on south Knoxville street.

There was never a dull moment in that little two-bedroom house and I marvel now that it could accommodate all the friends, relatives, church members and others who streamed in and out of it. My dad was the pastor of a tiny (in size, but mighty in spirit) church, Glover Memorial Methodist, on Independence Street. A skilled electrician by trade, Dad had to continue doing electrical work to supplement his meager pastor’s salary. Yet, he and my mom, who never met a stranger, always seemed able to set an extra plate or two at mealtime or spread a pallet on the floor for a relative or visitor at bedtime.

Strange as it seems now, Mom and Dad were only about 10 years older than the student nurses when they came into our lives, and the girls were only about 10 years older than me. I was about 9 and my brother Roy was about 6. The girls looked to my parents as mentors, guidance counselors, spiritual advisors, matchmakers (my mother’s department) and entertainment directors (Hattie says that was my job). The girls ate with us and stayed overnight every time they could. They joined us for picnics, swimming at Creekmore Park, visiting relatives, chores (at home and church) and on out-of-town trips. (Hattie got to see an amazing Louis Armstrong concert with us in Fayetteville one time.) When the girls graduated in 1954, we were there, along with their real families, to congratulate them.

Hattie worked in surgery here after her graduation and later took anesthesiology training locally, so we got to know her and her family the longest. Her two sisters, Adeline and Mary, also went to nurses school and were always welcome at our house. They occasionally babysat my brother Rob, who was born in 1959. Hattie later disclosed her sisters really didn’t like staying with Rob, though, because he would cry all the time we were gone.

I caught up with Hattie by phone in Flagstaff, Ariz., where she and her husband, Jack Garner, live, and with Lorene in Sedalia, Mo. Lorene and her husband, Joyce Downing, bought a historic home (circa 1842) 35 years ago. A widow for nearly 10 years now, Lorene is operating the home as a bed and breakfast. I also got to talk in person to Betty, who, with her husband of 50 years, Jim Bolin, moved to Fort Smith about two years ago from their farm in Mansfield. It was wonderful to see her after so many years and find her as witty as ever.

I had to laugh when Betty reminded me that she also had met husband Jim – "through his sister’s gall bladder" – while she was in nursing school. Betty helped take care of Jim’s sister, Drucilla Bolin Hughart, who now is a columnist for the Greenwood Democrat. Drucilla learned Betty loved to fish and invited her to go fishing with her family. Betty met Jim, they fell in love and are still living happily ever after.

They all brought me up to date about their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We shared stories about their student nursing days. All three still fondly remember my mother’s great cooking, and Hattie agrees with me that my mother made the world’s best fried chicken. We also reminisced about my dad teaching all of them how to drive. Now that was really scary! My dad has always been a very brave man, however. He handled it in stride and no serious accidents occurred.

Hattie also refreshed my memory on which nurse met mom first.
"Lorene came off her shift one night and told me she had met ‘the nicest lady, who has the cutest nephews,’" Hattie recalled. "I never dreamed your mom and dad would become like parents to me. They both had such strong faith in God and were so much help to me, especially when my dad died. But they were a lot of fun, too."

Lorene told me, "I can close my eyes now and see us all scrubbing the floors at your dad’s little church. But we didn’t mind. Your mom and dad were so good to us, they fed us and took care of us. I don’t know what we would have done without them."

And my brothers and I feel the same way.

 

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

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