Page 53 - 574220 SunCity Flipbook

Since the age of five, I had dreamed of becoming
a nurse. The summer I was twenty, I gradu-
ated from nursing school and earned the right to
attach “RN” to the end of my name.
My alma mater hired me and I began the 3-11
p.m. shift in pediatrics. After just a few days, I
became the charge nurse on a thirty-bed floor in
the oldest part of the hospital. We had few ameni-
ties beyond electricity and running water, but I
was lucky to have an experienced LVN, a unit
secretary and two nurses’ aides doing wonderful
things for our little patients.
Nursing in 1965 was much different that it is
today. With no pediatric intensive care unit, all
critical patients were ours. Many surgery patients
came to us rather than going to recovery. There
was a notable absence of “brass,” who seemed to
find sick kids to be downright scary.
Day after day, I showed up early and stayed late.
Dressed in my starched white uniform with my
jaunty white cap with the black stripe, I made
my rounds.
I am now retired, but I am still a nurse. It’s part
of the fiber of my being. Though it was often hard,
it was the most rewarding thing I can imagine
- touching the lives of so many beautiful people,
witnessing so many miracles and walking with
people in their darkest moments. I am blessed.
SUSAN KASPER
Ah, the memories…When I was twenty, as
with most single young people in the ‘60s, my
life was full of emotions. I was running track at
the University of Western Ontario and studying
hard to complete my first degree. In those times
before computers and Wikipedia, my days were
spent in the library stacks, researching for hours
on my thesis work.
I was not alone in the stacks. The girl I was madly
in love with and engaged to, my wife Lynda, often
did her course work there. Researching with her
was a cheap date as we were saving money to get
married two years later. It was priceless to just
spend that time with her and realize that she would
stick by me in everything life would bring us.
While these two things were going on I was work-
ing undercover for the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police trying to break up a drug gang in my home
town. This was the scariest time in my life, but
the cause was more meaningful than the fear. By
catching the bad guys, I like to think I made a
little dent in the drug trade that was beginning
to become rampant in the late 1960’s.
Being twenty provided me with a salad bowl of
emotions, ones that prepared me for the ‘real’ life
I would face when my university days were over.
MARK ELLEY
Mark Elley is on the cover of this month’s Sun Rays.
ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG
At 20, I was in my second year with
the United State Air Force and on
my second assignment. The year was
1970. I had enlisted into the USAF
as soon as I turned 18 with parental
consent. Eighteen was the age re-
quirement for only women; men were
allowed to join at 17 with parental
consent. I had met my husband-to-be
at 19 and was still dating him ten
months later as I turned 20. Jerry
had proposed marriage just 20 days
after we met, but I insisted on wait- Jerry and Violet Nicklen
ing until I turned 21. Even at 21, the
USAF and church required written permissions: For a church wedding, my
parents had to provide a written statement that I had never been married,
and the Women’s Air Force (WAF) Commander had to authorize marriage.
The male unit Commander where I worked within the Aerospace Defense
Command (a Command that no longer exists) also had to authorize the mar-
riage union. Forty-six years later, Jerry and I are still together. I retired as
a USAF Lieutenant Colonel after 30 years of active service.
VIOLET NICKLEN
Tony Cerveny, far right, during his ROTC days.
At 20, I was a sophomore studying engineering at Cameron Junior
College in Lawton, Oklahoma. I elected not to accept football schol-
arships from one of a few junior colleges, instead choosing to study
engineering and work my way through college.
I vividly recall sitting in a room and digesting a principle instilled by
my parents: “No one is better than you - but also remember, you are
no better than anyone else.” I knew I was good enough to succeed, I
just needed to improve upon what I was already doing.
Fortunately, I got a great job on an engineering/surveying crew
building a super highway. It was great money for a young lad and I
was able to cover my expenses.
I moved up to a top-ranking ROTC position (Cadet Lt. Colonel) and
was elected president of Phi Theta Kappa scholastic society. Halfway
through my twentieth year, I began my junior year at Oklahoma
State University, where I became president of Sigma Tau and was
awarded the Wentz Scholarship as well as St. Patrick’s Award for
Leadership and Scholastics in Engineering. I graduated with a
Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master
of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management.
TONY CERVENY
APRIL 2016 SUNRAYS | 51