For forty years students at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary have had a shoulder to cry on, a confidante, and someone to bounce ideas off of.
But as of last Friday, the school's long time den mother, Adele Meyers, is now retired.
Meyers was the school's coordinator of admissions and student affairs and says a lot has changed since 1976.
“My first year here there were 72 students and it stayed that way until 2000 and then it started to climb and we now take about 150 each year,” said Meyers.
Meyers used to have to phone all the successful applicants to tell them they'd been accepted because they didn’t have email back then and she loved it.
“I often did it on Mother's Day and could hear moms screaming in the background and so on. It really was fun,” she said.
She has stories about many of the students but has a special bond with some, like Lanette Prediger, who was from the class of 2005.
Prediger is an emergency room doctor now and a member of the national skeleton team.
She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in her second year of school and with her family far away, there was only one person to turn to.
“I went right directly from the oncologists office to the medical school and I went into Adele’s office and I’m like, I need to talk to you and I told her what had happened and instantly it just felt better,” said Dr. Prediger. “Adele really stepped up to the plate and she went ahead you know and raised thousands and thousands of dollars and shaved her head.”
For what she has done for medical students over the years, Adele Meyers is this week's Inspiring Albertan.
(With files from Darrel Janz)
