Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing - Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 23 text:

r; I I t I How vividly we remember that warm September day when The Lincolnshire opened its doors wide to receive one hundred twenty-five young women, eager yet timid, reaching out for maturity yet clinging mightily to the last remnants of girlhood. The old hotel creaked under the weight of trunks, boxes, suitcases and stuffed animals, anything portable, totable or dragable . . . (“But, Mother, I might need my five formals, skis, bathing suit and T ' set.”) ... If only our big sister had told us that all we really needed were a toothbrush and alarm clock! The days passed in rapid suc- cession, and we cultivated the MGH stride on our daily march down Charles Street to the Mecca. At six o’clock on any particular morning we owned that old cow- path! 19

Page 22 text:

A wisp of black and white caught fleetingly as we rushed to meet countless deadlines; here a smile, there a single tear: fragments of ourselves which may be found in every corner of the hospital. These we leave behind, small token for the part of MGH we carry away with us now. We take with us the most precious gift, knowledge; and countless snatches of memory. Calling upon those memories now, they come rushing and tumbling, falling easily into their places in each year. 18

Page 24 text:

In between breaks came grinding hours of study, the attempt to assimilate a body of knowledge we felt at times could not be learned in a thousand years, let alone a thousand days. In those days, “The MGH Way” seemed always a little beyond our grasp. So we made beds ad nauseam in the lab far into the night; so we injected pil- lows and oranges with air. But somehow it wasn’t quite the same when we were presented with our very own real live patients. “Hello, I’m Miss Fisher and I’m going to be tjour nurse this morning, and would you like a backrub?” 20