Classmates reunite after 50 years

It was 1948 when Fran Mutch, Betty Heffelfinger, Eileen Green, and Sybil Mowe graduated from the nursing program at the old Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg.
Last week, the foursome gathered in Fort Frances to catch up on each others’ lives and reminisce about their school days a half-century ago. And there was no question what was tops on their agenda–talking.
“You’ve got a lot to catch up on in 50 years. This is the first time we’ve all been together,” said Mutch, who travelled here from British Columbia with Heffelfinger for the three-day reunion.
“We were bonded together,” agreed Heffelfinger, noting they had kept in touch over the years.
It was Mowe who initiated the reunion, and the others felt it would be easiest for them to travel here. Their families, they said, were all for it–and only one classmate couldn’t make it.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for anything,” noted Green, who came from Saskatchewan.
While they were strangers when they first started the nursing program, they worked with each other daily, attended classes together, and lived with each other in residence. In short, they were together 24 hours a day and became like family to each other.
And although “lights out” was 10:30 p.m., that didn’t always mean they went right to sleep. “It didn’t matter what time they told us lights out was,” laughed Green, noting nothing could stop them from talking.
And talk they did, lending each other the support that could come only from those going through a similar experience.
“We had to work so many hours. Then on our hours off, we had to take classes,” recalled Green, adding it normally was a 10-hour day, with two hours devoted to classes.
“And we lived through it,” Mowe smiled.
“We got to know each other really well,” Mutch stressed, noting the way their days were set up, the students soon became friends for life.
“We made our own fun,” she said. “It was ether laugh or weep so we laughed.”