To give visitors a better understanding of what it was like to
be a nurse in Canada, the exhibition includes videotaped dramatizations
featuring four characters brought to life by actors.
Marie-Angélique Viger (Soeur Saint-Martin), Apothecary (1770-1832)
Marie-Angélique Viger was a nun at the Hôtel-Dieu
hospital in Quebec City. Renowned as far away as Halifax for her
skills as an apothecary, she had been educated by the Ursuline nuns
of Trois-Rivières, and quickly surpassed her teachers.
She entered the Hôtel-Dieu in 1788 at the age of 18. Soon
after taking her vows in 1789, she became the hospital's apothecary –
a vocation for which she had "a distinguished talent and boundless
charity." She also had a talent for surgery. After the hospital's
doctor failed to perform a successful amputation, Viger took over,
saving the patient's life. She also had many other talents and
interests, and even played a crucial role in the Hôtel-Dieu's
reconstruction.
Soeur Saint-Martin died in 1832, during a devastating cholera epidemic.
She viewed her "surprising strength and aptitude for caring for
the sick" as gifts from God, and dedicated herself to using these
gifts for "the quiet of the flesh and the salvation of souls."
Myra Grimsley Bennett, Newfoundland Outport Nurse (1890-1990)
Myra Grimsley Bennett was one of several British nurses, all
trained midwives, who served in remote Newfoundland communities
through the Outport Nursing Committee – the brainchild of
Lady Constance Harris, wife of Newfoundland's governor. Grimsley
was sent to Daniel's Harbour on the west coast of Newfoundland
in 1920.
Grimsley cared for the people living on 300 kilometres of coastline.
The nearest doctor was almost 200 kilometres away, and the
nearest hospital was in St. Anthony, at the northern tip of
the peninsula. She provided services ranging from midwifery to
minor surgery – even using her "universal forceps" to pull
decayed teeth.
In 1922, Grimsley married local resident Angus Bennett, who became
her lifelong "paramedic." Although marriage forced her to retire,
she continued to nurse on a voluntary basis. She later became a
full-time employee of the Newfoundland Department of Health,
retiring at age 65. During her lifetime, she was honoured with
several awards, including the Medal of the British Empire. Her
former home in Daniel's Harbour is now a museum dedicated to
interpreting her outport nursing service.
Alice Matilda Freeman ("Faith Fenton"), Investigative Journalist (1857-1936)
Teacher Alice Freeman began her journalistic career in 1886, when
she started writing a column for the daily newspaper in Barrie,
Ontario. By 1888, she was writing a women's column for the
Toronto Empire under the pen name Faith Fenton – a
pseudonym which helped to hide her second career from her employers
at the School Board, who would have fired her if they had learned
she was writing for the newspapers.
In 1893, she travelled to Chicago to cover the International Council
of Women during the Chicago's World Fair. There, she met
Lady Ishbel Gordon, Countess of Aberdeen. Lady Aberdeen soon became
aware of the dire need for visiting nurses in various parts of Canada.
She persuaded several influential people, including Prime Minister
Wilfrid Laurier, to back the founding of a visiting order of nurses
in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
To help publicize the newly founded Victorian Order of Nurses (VON),
Lady Aberdeen proposed that four of its members travel to Fort Selkirk
in the Yukon, where they would provide medical care to the many
gold prospectors suffering from typhoid fever and other diseases.
Fenton was to travel with the four VON nurses and send back articles
for publication in the Toronto Globe. She immortalized their 1898 trek
in her articles and journal with powerful descriptions of the
journey's ordeals.
By the time she reached Dawson City in the Yukon, Fenton was
exhausted and ill from the trip. She continued freelancing for
the Globe, however, becoming the paper's first
northern correspondent. In 1900, she married Dr. John Brown,
the Yukon Territory's Medical Officer of Health, and the
couple moved back to Toronto in 1904. When she died in 1936,
newspapers paid tribute to Fenton as the "lone woman writer
in the northern wilds."
The First World War Soldier
The fictional character of Scotty, a 20-year-old soldier from
Owen Sound, Ontario, dramatizes how thousands of Canadian
soldiers benefited from the care of Canadian Nursing Sisters
on the battlefield.
Recovering from a mustard gas attack in No. 2 Canadian Stationary
Hospital, Scotty is confined to a wheelchair and has difficulty
breathing. The attack has also left him badly disfigured with
blisters and sores. Although he finds it physically difficult
to speak, Scotty is eloquent in conveying his deep appreciation
for the care and comfort he receives from the Nursing Sister.
"The kindness in her eyes," he says, carries him back home.
Dramamuse actor Richard Gélinas spent many hours being made
up with layers of latex to simulate facial blistering for his role
as Scotty. To prepare for the part, he also did his own research,
studying photographic records of the physical damage suffered by
soldiers during the First World War. "It is one thing to read
about it, and another to see it," he says. He also kept in mind
how the soldiers' suffering was aggravated by memories of the
horrific events they had witnessed on the battlefield. While
playing the part of Scotty, Gélinas says he could
easily understand the difference a "friendly female face"
and a nurse's warmth and compassion would make in a soldier's
convalescence.
