Bare Facts Bio - I keep trying to be concise but it isn't working

I grew up in the East New York section of Brooklyn, attended PS 76 until 4^th grade and then my parents transferred me and my siblings to St. Michael’s Elementary School.   Suffice it to say, this was not a very good experience for me.    I graduated from Our Lady of Wisdom Academy in Ozone Park, Queens before starting SVH Nursing School in Sept. 1962. 

In High School, I had never heard of St. Vincent’s Hospital until my dear, sweet mother encouraged me to apply to their nursing school.  She said her cousin was treated there and she had a very positive experience.   She told me it had a stellar reputation and I should send in my application.

As part of the application process, I was interviewed by a young male (? who he was I do not know but I liked him and he liked me) and on February 26, 1962 I received a tentative acceptance letter, “pending satisfactory completion of your high school program…..and your physical examination”   which was signed by Sister Marian Catherine, R. N. Director, Department of Nursing and Nursing Education.

I attended registration for admission and orientation on Thursday, Sept 6^th at 10:30 and was sent back home, “Students are now free to go home and are to return to the residence Sunday before 9 P.M.”  ………..“The school year will commence on Monday, September 10^th. “

Thus began one of the most profound experiences of my lifetime.

There were things I loved and things I hated about nursing school and I plan to continue documenting these in my Unconventional Biography.  For purposes here, I will say I especially loved the tangent aspects of my experiences, i.e., living in a dorm atmosphere in Greenwich village, the magical feeling of walking into the dances in the school auditorium in my full dress uniform (boy did I feel special!), marching up 5^th Avenue in the St. Patrick’s Parades, going out to the bars and frat parties, etc, etc. 

After graduation, I worked for a year in Pediatrics at St. Vincent’s and quit my job in August 1966 to hop around Europe for 6 weeks with fellow classmates and late bloomers, Mary Jane Sassone, Susan Smith and Eleanor Moffett.   We had a marvelous time with museums, monuments and men – not necessarily in that order, if you get my drift.

On my return to the good old USA, I took a job in Pediatrics at Jamaica Hospital in Queens and quickly learned that not every hospital meets the standards of St. Vincent’s or St. Vincent’s Nurses.  When I arrived at work one morning to discover a toddler basically dead in his bed from dehydration because the physician on call during the night did not know how to start and IV/cutdown on a young child, I knew I could not continue to work in such an atmosphere.

I then joined Mary Jane Sassone and Sue Smith on the American Red Cross Blood Mobile.  This was a “fun” job for young, unattached females since the Blood Mobile went to such places as Police Precincts, Fire Houses, West Point, the prisons, etc., etc.  We had great fun and got a lot of dates (maybe not from the prison population) although I did on one occasion take blood from my old boyfriend’s brother.

The problem with this job was that  after a year of the same activities day in and day out, I thought I would go absolutely nuts and be brain dead if I had to repeat the  medical interview questions one more time.   When I realized how close I was to whacking the next guy who said, “Yeah, my wife” when I asked, “Are you allergic to anything?” I decided it was time to leave this “dating pool job”.

After that, I was excited to land a job at the soon to be opened, Downstate Medical Center directly across from Kings County Hospital in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn.  I was hired to set-up and staff a brand new Pediatric Specialty Clinic (aka Clinic D).  This was a fantastic job, right up my alley.  We had a different pediatric specialty clinic every morning and afternoon, Monday through Friday.  I enjoyed having a lot of autonomy on how things were going to be run; I had tremendous teaching and learning opportunities, and very few emergencies where quick decisions needed to be made (As you might have gathered I need a lot of time to moll things over and this characteristic does not meld well with certain types of nursing jobs.  You wouldn’t want your E.R. nurse to moll things over as you were hemorrhaging to death, now would you?”  Nonetheless, I realized that I might have to deal with a true emergency in the Clinic situation and I wanted to be prepared to handle this so I signed up for a 4 month Pediatric Intensive Care Course across the street at Kings County Hospital. Center.  Wanting some more practical, " hands-on" experience, I decided to work in the Pediatric ICU at Downstate for awhile and ended up staying a little over a year in this PICU.  I much preferred the Specialty Clinics and eventually was able to return to my position there. 

All during this time period, I continued to look for Mr. Right.   It took me quite some time to find him, and I must add, this was not for lack of trying.  I shouldn’t admit this but I’m now so old I can say things I wouldn't have admitted to in my younger years.  My Grandpa, TJ O’Donnell, saw so many guys coming and going that he once said, “Mary, you’ll date anyone who wears pants.”   A bit insulting, wouldn’t you say even if it was bordering a little on the truth?