They were nicknamed “pinkies” and were only trusted to take patients to chapel on Sundays.
They entered The George Hotel to celebrate their lifelong friendship, making jokes and cheering their water glasses with promises of cocktails to come.
Most of the 47 girls who entered the hospital on January 2, 1957, have kept in touch throughout the years and met up a couple of times.
“This one is low-key because we’re all getting older, all into our 80s,” one of the “pinkies,” Lois Eagle, said.
Some could not make it to the reunion as they weren’t well enough to travel or lived in the North Island.
When speaking with The Star, Lois recalled her decision to go into nursing after she left Christchurch Girls’ High School at 16.
“I went to the bank because you couldn’t begin nursing until you were 18 and I thought I’d like to do that job,” she said.
“So I went to the bank and I told the bank manager I’m only staying for two years and he said: ‘No, you won’t because you won’t get so much pay’ and that’s exactly right.”
She received eight pound a week at the bank, but only four pound and nine pence while training.
But the pay did not deter Lois, as she had made up her mind.
The girls who entered the programme were “nervous, naive and excited”, Lois said.
“We wore bright pink dresses under crisp white aprons, wrestled with fiddly studs on our starched collars, cuffs and hats,” she said.
For three months, the girls did preliminary training, staying in the classroom except to take patients to chapel on Sundays.
“Everybody would know if you’re in pink, you don’t know much, don’t trust them,” Lois said with a chuckle.
“We moved around while we were training, we would go to one ward for three months and then you’d get moved on.”
She said the sisters on the wards seemed like “dragons” back then.
“Looking back now, I realise that we were only young . . . we knew nothing and they had the responsibility of 30 or more patients and we had to get it right otherwise you could kill someone if we did something wrong.”
The girls worked from 5.30am – though it was supposed to be 6am – until about 2.30pm, before the next shift from 2pm-10pm and the late shift from 10pm-6am.
There were always overlaps, Lois said.
Back then, bandages had to be washed and rolled back up again, she recalled.
They only had one day off a week and were required to be in by 10pm during their first year and 11.15pm during the rest of the time.
Though they worked long hours, Lois said they loved it.
“We did it because we loved the people, we loved the thought of caring for people. I think that’s what it came back to, caring for people and seeing them get better, nursing them for a lot longer,” she said.
“Today, the average days in hospital is very short, isn’t it? Because in those days they were quite long and we got to know the patients very well.”
The wards were big and long rooms, and sometimes, when overstretched, people would be in the centre and in corridors.
“You had a heart attack in those days, you weren’t even allowed to clean your teeth. You had to sit for several weeks, whereas today they have a stent put in and they’re on their way the next day,” Lois said.
They worried about whether the wheels on the bed were straight or the sheets and blankets had the corners mitred. The girls were taught how to clean and clean again, how to shake glass thermometers and read the mercury, and change the sheets and rubber mackintoshes.
Lois noted respect was something they were steeped in.
Whenever a matron or a surgeon came in the room, they were required to quickly roll their sleeves down, put their cuffs on, put their hands behind their backs and ask them what they wanted.
While they completed their three-years-and-three-months training, the girls stayed near the hospital.
“I think because we lived in ... we became very good friends,” Lois said.
“We used to laugh together and we used to cry together too, I can tell you that ... but we worked very hard.”
Lois said not all of them made it through the training but most did, including herself.
“Some of them dropped out to be married,” she said, noting you had to be single to train.
“In those days you know ... you didn’t work when you were married, you stayed home. You were a home-maker,” Lois said.
“Some of them decided it wasn’t for them, some of them just didn’t finish their exams but we still remain friends, that first class.”
Lois worked for six months nursing before leaving and getting married. In 1969, she became a driving instructor and continued that for 48 years at the Cashmere Driving School.
Some of the 47 continued on to become great nurses, Lois said.
About 22 of them attended their “very big” 60th reunion at Newbury Lodge. Some husbands also attended.
For the 65th, they were intending to meet in January, but Covid meant they had to delay it until November.
“We decided that we would go and meet at The George,” Lois said.
“Quite expensive but quite nice and we will be there as a special thing for 65 years since we started together.”
Lois surprised the rest of the group by recreating the original uniform they wore in 1957 as “pinkies”.
She still had her blue dress from when she graduated and so bought some pink material from Spotlight and got her dressmaker friend to make it. The apron is originally hers.
