The Obstacles I Over Came to Become a Nurse

The prompt for Week 4 of #52 Weeks, #52 Ancestors is on Education.

     I have always wanted to be a nurse from a very young age. My Mom (Annette) was a nurse and that might have influenced my decision. I also knew I didn’t want to be a teacher, secretary, or telephone operator. Those were the only jobs available with good earning potential for women when I was graduating from high school in 1965. I was looking forward to living in a nursing dormitory and training in a hospital. My path to becoming a nurse wasn’t as easy as I dreamed.

    Mom never wanted me to be a nurse because nursing was hard work and she knew I don’t really like hard work unless it is something I enjoy. She wanted me to be a dental hygienist another field I didn’t want to work in. I knew nursing was hard work because I can remember how tired she was when she came home from work. She would take her uniform off and sitting in the chair in her full-length slip with her white nylon stocking rolled down to her ankles. This is the pre-panty hose era, so two separate stockings held up with either a girdle or gather belt. She would elevate her feet and be so grateful to be able to relax.

Mary at High School

    The next hurdle was my Catholic High School principal, Sister Carradine, who had the nerve to tell my parents I won’t graduate from high school when I was a freshman. But I persisted and made it to be a Senior. When I was a Senior and taking the entrance exam for two different Diploma Schools of Nursing, Sister Carradine had the audacity to tell me, “You are too stupid to be a nurse, compassionate enough to be a good one but not smart enough.” I was not accepted by the two Diploma schools of nursing I tested for; I was a C student and just missed the top half of my class by two people.

Mary LPN Graduation

    Now for the next challenge, I enrolled in the Broward Vocation School in the LPN program in September of 1965 at the age of 17. The nursing instructors made it very clear to me that I was the youngest student they had ever accepted, and they were not sure it was the right to accept me into the program. I think they pushed me harder than some of the other students.

    On October 13th I had an emergency appendectomy, it was a Wednesday night. I missed school on Thursday, Friday & Monday, which was a half day of testing for a scholarship. I walked into school on Tuesday, and I was asked what I was doing there; they had dropped me from the program. I told them they could not drop from the program because I had not missed 5 days of school; I had missed 3 days of school. They also questioned if I could physically do the work. My doctor had cleared me to do all activities. We weren’t doing patient care yet in the hospital. I do not remember thinking that was gutsy back then but in retrospect, it sure did take some guts to stand up to what I knew was right. I was able to finish the year-long program, but they made me make up two days of school at the end of the year. I spent my make time cleaning the classroom for the incoming class. My grades were straight A average and I was also nominated by my classmates as Student of the Year and was able to go to an LPN Nursing Convention and represent my school and class.

Mary RN Student

    Oh, I am not done, one more to go. In 1970 I enrolled in Broward Junior College back then, now a Community College for their nursing program to obtain high education to become an RN. During my first semester, I had an interview with the Dean of the School of Nursing. She reviewed my high school grades, and she didn’t think I would be accepted for those grades. I mentioned I was an A student and student of the year in my LPN program. Her comment was, “The LPN program is only equivalent to a 10th-grade education.” I am sitting there thinking it was a lot harder than high school, I am sure my jaw dropped at her comment. She would review my grades after I had completed a semester and if I had Cs in all my classes I would be accepted into the nursing program. In 1972 I graduated from BCC with a straight A average, was on the President's list, and was a member of the Honor Society.

    

    

RN Graduation

    After graduating from BCC and passing my Florida State Board of Nursing I enrolled in Florida International University in 1973. They accepted all my community college credits and I enrolled as a junior. In 1976 I graduated with my BSN and was on the Dean’s List. During my nursing education, I worked as a nurse. I felt like I was eating, drinking, and sleeping nursing for the five years it took me to earn my ASN and then a BSN, but it was worth it.

     In 1975 I attended my 10-year high school Reunion and was able to speak with Sister Carradine, I mentioned I had worked as an LPN for many years before getting my RN from a junior college and that I was one semester away from earning my BSN. Her comment to me was, “I knew you could do it, you just had to do it your way.” I never want to punch someone until that night, but I wanted to punch her! I pull my arm back and made a fist, I wanted to swing up and punch her right on her chin. But I didn’t.

    I guess the moral of the story is if you want it bad enough you will get it. The path that opened to me wasn’t the path I dreamed of as a kid. But it got me where I wanted to be. Many of my friends who went to diploma school had to repeat nursing 101 over again at a university level. I did have to start over in junior college, but it was more informative than what I had in the LPN program. I didn’t have to repeat any classes at the university level. Having my BSN opened many career doors for me, especially for jobs that required a BSN.

Retirement Dinner after a 47-year career as a nurse

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LPN = Licensed Practical Nurse. Jokingly referred to as Low Paid Nurse RN = Registered Nurse, not a Real Nurse ASN = Associate Degree in Nursing BSN = Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing

Favorite Photo

This week's prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, 

is a favorite photo. Of course, there are many and I probably have one for each ancestor. But when I read the prompt this is the photo that comes to mind.

These are my maternal grandparents, William Thomas Chaplin and Minnie Elizabeth Spahn. It was taken on the roof of the apartment building they lived in, Brooklyn, Kings, New York.  

It is a very relaxed and intimate pose. The fingers intertwined. His hand was on her waist. The leaning. 

The dark mark by his mouth is from a pen. 

I asked my Aunt Bea, my mother's sister about this picture, and below is the information she shared with me. 

Click on the image to enlarge

Here is the same picture colorized by My Heritage. 

I'd Like to Meet...

I am looking forward to meeting my mother Edith Inez Chaplin. 

Yes, you read that right. My mother died a week before my first birthday from Breast Cancer. 

She was 32 years old. 

Feb 5, 1949, my mother Edith died from the complications of Breast Cancer. It was one week before my first birthday. 

I have wondered what she was like and what she saw in my father. Remember all kids have a funny view of their parents. What things did she enjoy, her favorite color you know those normal kinds of things. Dad didn't tell me much about her maybe because he had a new wife and maybe because it was too painful for him to remember.

I can remember when they told me I had a different mother than my brothers. I think I was six. It was the second time, they told me about my mother. They had told me the year before but I didn't remember that. They gave me a compact with an "E" engraved on it and her picture. I, unfortunately, lost the compact.

I also wonder what she worried about as she lost her battle with cancer and what things she would have liked to tell me if she could. She was diagnosed in August and was gone by February, after spending 25 years of my life as an Oncology nurse, I know she had a very aggressive kind of cancer.

What I do know about her I know from my Aunt Bea & Uncle Bill her siblings. Her nickname was "The Swede" because she was so blond when she was little, as her picture above shows. As a little kid, she had an active imagination and was frequently caught talking to her boys, her imaginary friends. As a young girl of 9, her Dad passed away and she had to fend for herself after school as everyone else in the household had to go to work.

When I went to New York that summer I was 15, and the first I did when I walked into Aunt Bea's house was kick my shoes off. My Aunt tells me, "That is exactly what your mother always did as soon as she walked in the house the shoes came off." It made me feel very good to know I had a habit of my mother's even without knowing it. She liked to sing and would sing harmony with Uncle Bob, Aunt Bea's husband.

As a teenager, if she didn't want to go out with a guy again, or didn't want to give a guy her phone number she would give them the phone number to the police station. Now that sounds like something I would do. Come to think of it I have. 

I used to think I got all my sass from my Dad maybe not.

She worked as a waitress and had office jobs. She eloped at 18 to a guy about 10 years older but that ended in divorce. I was told my Dad's parents didn't like this fact and they waited until his parents died to marry.  But they died in 1943, I think the delay also had something to do with WWII, as the war ended in September of 1945 and they married in October of 1945.

My Aunt Em, my Dad's sister liked both of my mothers and enjoyed them both as much as if they had been sisters. I don't know when or how she & my dad meet. She became a Catholic to marry him. And that is about all I know. I like this last picture of my mother, she looks like a really classy gal. I also think some of the fashions from the forty's had a really classic style and made women look great.

I just remembered one more story. My Mom use to tell me that my Mother and Dad wanted to have children really bad, and they had been married for 3 years before I came along. The story goes that once the doctor told Edith she couldn't have any children she got pregnant. That was really cool of my second mom to share such a story with me.

As I re-read the letter from my uncle and aunts everyone expressed a lot of love for both of my mothers and that I was always to respect and honor both of them. I think I have.