A Day to Remember Nana, the Nurse

Nana, circa 1952

My maternal grandmother was the daughter of a doctor (Granville Turner Collins). Emily "Villa" Collins Owen (1899-1982) studied music in her teens, then went on to train as a nurse at Stuart Circle Hospital. For decades she worked as a nurse at Retreat Hospital. 

Watching the news reports about the new medical team that will serve President-elect Joe Biden, to battle COVID-19 once he is in office, I have been reminded of the grandmother I called "Nana" (pronounced Ny-nuh). She retired from nursing in the late-1950s to take care of her husband, Frank W. Owen, after he became a semi-invalid. At the time I lived in their home. So my memories of her as a nurse are from over 60 years ago.

By the way, seated on her piano bench, she could take a tune and improvise on it to no end. She enjoyed doing that with popular songs that I liked as a kid. Her talent for hearing a song once and then doing variations on the melody was amazing.

In general, Nana was an extraordinarily charming and generous person. Those traits served her well in her duties as a nurse. Perhaps that was especially so in her role as the supervisor of younger women who were nurses. Some of those women would visit her in our home in those days and I have memories of them telling me how much they admired my grandmother. Some would tell stories about her heroism at the hospital. Stories about how much her co-workers, doctors and nurses, depended on her to take on the heartbreaking jobs no one else wanted. Stories about her dauntless sense of humor. 

Some of those young nurses loved her and told me so. There were stories about doctors who couldn't tell people bad news, so they would ask her to do it. There were stories about how sometimes she, alone, could comfort difficult patients who were scared. There were stories about how much some of the doctors relied on her talent as a diagnostician.

Those nurses told me my grandmother was a saint. Of course, I already knew that. 

Now I'm thinking about the heroic nurses and doctors, today, brave people who are carrying on that tradition. Some of them are performing in that saintly role. Their co-workers know who they are. Their families know.