Good memories, great stories shared at Kincardine Hospital retirees reunion

About 45 people gathered Wednesday afternoon, at the Kincardine Legion, as retirees from the Kincardine and District General Hospital (now the South Bruce Grey Health Centre – Kincardine Hospital) got together for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organizer Eleanor Roppel of Tiverton said the group had been enjoying regular monthly gatherings. These were originally co-ordinated by Dorothy Green, a Registered Practical Nurse (RPN), from 1992 to 2003, and Marilyn Johnston of Ripley, carried on until 2019 when that all stopped.

Then one day, Roppel was with Linda Farrell and they decided to re-start these regular get-togethers. “And Linda told me to go ahead and do it,” quipped Roppel.

Jean Johnston, a Registered Nurse (RN), worked at the hospital for 32 years, retiring when the hospital amalgamated with the other sites in Walkerton, Chesley and Durham in 1999.

Shirley Johnson-Hays was also an RN, working at the hospital for 27 years before retiring and then working at the medical clinic on Lambton Street and the clinic beside the hospital, for another 15 years.

“We were like family working at the hospital,” she recalled. “When you worked the night shift, you got to know your colleagues. There were a lot of changes when the continuing care section opened. We had to make adjustments and we were working everywhere.”

Isabel Jones worked for 30 years as a physiotherapist at the hospital, retiring in 2002.

“We had such a lot of fun,” she remembered. “We had monthly boosters – the health records staff and the physiotherapy department because we were right beside each other. I came to work all dressed up for the 'Good Ship Lollipop' theme, and they made a video of us. We did a baseball theme, a beach theme, toga day, a garden party and a fashion show. It was a great time!”

Pat McKechnie was a pharmacist at the hospital from 1980-2009, while her husband, Bruce, was the pharmacist downtown, at I.D.A. and then Gordon Pharmasave, and later opening his own McKechnie Pharmacy which is now located in the lower level of the Hawthorne Community Clinic beside the hospital.

Carol “Cookie” Quinn was an RPN for 33 years before retiring.

“Oh, we had such fun,” she said. “We would get together and see what we could do to help our patients. I always went to work with a smile!”

Roppel was a Medical Radiation Technologist (MRT), coming here from Toronto. She worked for 30 years at the Kincardine Hospital, retiring in 2002. From there, she went to Nova Scotia for a six-month rotation on a pediatric team, and then, because she had a specialty in bone-density scans, she worked for four years in Owen Sound. She finally retired in December, 2006, because she’d had enough of winter driving.

She remembered many good times while working in Kincardine.

“We had snowball fights, and we’d shove someone in the shower when they were leaving the hospital and changing jobs,” she said, adding that RPN Marie Inkster trained her on the job as an RMT, and Marj Kirkconnell, a nurse’s aide, ran the X-ray department before Roppel arrived.

The group enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Legion and spent the afternoon swapping stories. Roppel also had them checking lists and adding names and telephone numbers of people who were hospital retirees as well.

Some other tidbits of history about the Kincardine Hospital:
 

• In the 1960s, the hospital didn’t have an ambulance. Ross MacLennon’s station wagon was used for trips to London, and Floyd Johnston often drove. Before 1970 or so, a van was purchased and an area for the attendant/nurse to sit was constructed behind the front passenger seat (not that comfortable but it worked). An ambulance was purchased in the mid-1970s.
• In the 1950s and before, some nursing staff and dietary staff lived on the third floor of the hospital. In the early 1950s, a wing was added to a house which became the “nurses residence.” This is now Women’s House Serving Bruce and Grey.
• In the 1950s, Miss Bell was in charge of all work schedules for staff, hiring of staff, and worked in the emergency department, when needed.