Global Discussion 8
Welcome’s Timeline
1919 Welcome is born to Bill and Arizona. She was raised in a close-knit community in a Midwestern town in the United States. Her father was a World War I veteran who worked odd jobs after the war and became a fireman, working the required 24-hour shifts at the town fire station. Her mother worked odd jobs and was a housewife.
1925 Arizona (Welcome’s mother) dies after a ruptured appendix. Welcome is 6 years old at the time. Bill cherishes Welcome and teaches her self-reliance and respect for others.
1929 Bill marries Nila, a schoolteacher, who rules with firmness and a loving heart. Besides teaching, Nila is very involved in the community. Welcome is 10 years old.
1931 Almost every year, after the snow melts, a fire breaks out at the paper mill (as do other fires in other places throughout the year). Whenever disasters strike in the community, Nila and Welcome cook food to take to the disaster site for workers, families, and the injured.
1933 Bill is injured in a paper mill fire and hospitalized. Mr. Jaspers, a fellow fireman and family friend, also is injured. Welcome describes him as being very swollen and puffy when she arrives at the hospital to visit. Welcome is in the hospital room visiting both men when Mr. Jaspers dies. She is distraught and fears that her father will swell and die (a common occurrence with injured firefighters). Welcome is comforted and supported by the Catholic nuns who are nurses. Welcome is 14 years old. Her father recovers.
1936 Welcome graduates from high school at 17 years old. She wants to go to New York and design clothes, but Bill and Nila encourage her to seek a career that will provide greater independence and stability.
1938 Welcome remembers how much she enjoyed helping out after disasters, her fascination with hospitals, and how impressed she was with the nuns who were nurses. She knew of several nurses in the community who graduated nursing school from General Hospital #2 in the state of Missouri.Welcome applies and is accepted to begin nurse training at General Hospital #2 in Kansas City, Missouri. Welcome is 19 years old.
1941 Welcome completes nurse training and becomes an RN.
1946 Now married to a physician, Welcome and her husband work at the city hospital. She also teaches student nurses and, serving as a supervisor, responds to a large number of the emergencies in the hospital. 1955 Welcome completes her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the local Catholic college. She enjoys teaching students, has a deep sense of compassion for people, and is still fascinated with hospitals. Nursing provides the independence and flexibility Welcome seeks as she raises their children. Though often encouraged to stop working and be financially supported by her husband, Welcome enjoys the economic security nursing provides.
1960 She begins working as a school nurse.
1962 She earns a master’s degree in teaching. 1970 Welcome continues working as a public school nurse and part-time at the local pediatric hospital.
1981 She retires from full-time nursing.