Julie

I was born and raised in Digby, Nova Scotia. It was quiet. It was a small town with only about two thousand people there. We had one movie theatre and three churches, but it’s known around the world for Digby Scallops.

I am the oldest of five, and I’m still close with my two sisters. We get together every summer to go to a cottage for a week.

I then went to Halifax and trained as what was called a “certified public nurse.” When I moved to Toronto, it was changed to “registered nursing assistant,” and now it has been changed to “registered practical nurse.” I worked most of my nursing career in nursing homes. At the last three nursing homes, I worked full-time evenings for about three years and full-time nights for about seven years. I was in charge of the shift.

I worked at Camp Hill, a military hospital in Halifax. We took in a lot of injured, including sailors and workers off of transport ships. There was one really bad burn case, and I can still smell it. It’s just horrible. But besides that, there was a lot of good. Everybody did their own thing, and we worked together as a group, got our work done, and went home. You meet a lot of really nice elderly people. There was one gentleman who was a funny old guy. He had been in World War II, but he was just hilarious. You would think he would be traumatized, but he moved on and was a character. There was also one lady who was in love with Patrick Swayze. She had posters all over her bedroom wall. It was unbelievable.

I’ve knit ever since high school when my mother taught me. I used to knit sweaters and baby blankets and tuques for grandkids. One year, I got into a sweater stage and knit sweaters for everyone. In the ’70s, I sewed my own maternity clothes. I also made my daughter her grade eight graduation dress and grade 12 graduation dress, along with all their first communion dresses.

Today, you can go to a restaurant and see a family where all of them are on their phones and not talking to each other. We had one television in the living room, and we ate in the kitchen. There were no cell phones, no laptops, so we all sat around the dinner table and discussed our day. I think it’s important to be present even if it is more complicated now.