'There's a connection': General Hospital School of Nursing class celebrates 60th anniversary

They've come a long way since they graduated from the General Hospital School of Nursing in 1963 and 40 of the 77 women from that class are getting together in Calgary to celebrate.

"We're all over 80," said Kendra Evans.

"We're coming from the States, from Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. ... There's only 12 coming from Calgary. The rest are coming from elsewhere."

While they may live all over North America now, Evans says 60 years ago, the students spent all their time together during the three-year course living in residence.

"Going through your training in a residence, that's what cements the friendships," she said.

"Not only did you live with all these people for three years, you worked, you took your classes, the theory and then you took your practice in the hospital."

And they came from all over the country to become nurses.

Eileen de Freitas remembers being frightened that first day, sitting in a room full of strangers.

"And I'll never forget looking around and there was a girl, a classmate behind and she's smiling at me and I'm smiling at her," she said.

"I said OK, it's going to be OK, you know? There's a connection and there'll be more smiles."

Leone Winthers grew up on a farm and remembers thinking "city girls" were in a class far above her and was intimidated just being in Calgary.

"I was absolutely petrified to move to the city," she said.

"Because we never had running water, we didn't have electricity, we didn't have any of that. My first tub bath was at the residence."

But Winthers soon learned all the young women were in the same boat no matter where they grew up.

"You're all strangers. You're 17 or 18 years old and you're walking into a residence," she said.

"You think you're going to become a nurse, but you have no idea what you're really walking into."

The women all remember the rules they had to follow while at school that students today would likely never stand for.

They had a 10 p.m. curfew every night and were subject to random room checks.

They were required to go to the chapel every morning before they started their studies.

Evans says they always had to follow strict etiquette in the hospital.

"If you were at the nursing station and a doctor appeared, everybody immediately stood to attention when a doctor showed up," she said.

"When you were a first-year student and you came to an elevator and it opened, you had to wait until anybody senior to you entered the elevator -- doctor, nurse, third-year students, second-year students, all these people who were senior to you -- and then if there was any room left over, you could get in."

Jane Beveridge and many of the other graduates say men and women graduating from today's nursing programs will never form relationships like they did in the early 1960s.

"They don't have the bond of being together and we certainly had that of supporting each other," she said.

Beveridge says even through the pandemic, the women stayed in touch.

"Our class did Zoom," she said.

"So, everybody got used to doing Zoom meetings and everybody got used to speaking up and it brought us much closer."

The women are gathering on May 5 and 6 to celebrate their 60th anniversary.

"I think that we lived at a very good time," said de Freitas.

"We had the experience of three years of living together and that is phenomenal because it sets up our life for the rest of our life, you know? We made such strong bonds and friendships and they've just lasted and lasted."

The final graduating class from the General Hospital program was in 1974 and will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.

The women are sad that the General Hospital no longer exists today.

It was demolished on Oct. 4, 1998.