They wrote their own song. They had their own “rebellious” way to wear a school uniform. And they have remained friends for 50 years.
When Western’s nursing class of 1973 gathers for its 50th anniversary reunion at Homecoming this weekend – some travelling from as far as Australia and France – it won’t be the first time its graduates have seen one another since their days at school.
The tight-knit class has been hosting its own reunions every five years since leaving campus.
“The friendships over the years is what really brings us back together. We come from all over,” said Fran Coward, who went on to work in public health after getting her nursing degree.
She arrived in London from her home in Calgary, Alta. this week for the reunion.
“Most of the time we try to bring some purple with us. Back when we were younger, we always went to the football game. The last time we were there we had a tour of the nursing facilities, and the simulation lab, and the new building,” Coward said.
Mary T. Reid
The class will gather on Friday, Sept. 22, at the home of Mary T. Reid, the lead organizer, for dinner, drinks before heading to campus and a hotel dinner on Saturday.
“Age is only a number. It’s exciting to be back. You only live once, why not go to these reunions while you can?” said Reid, who retired after a long career in public health.
“Our class was only 40 people to begin with, I think because we were a small group and we were together for four years, we all got along really well,” she added. “We’ve always kept track of each other.”
By the time they graduated, the class included 32 members. Three have since passed away, and a few others have lost contact, leaving a core group of 25 who try to attend reunions.
“We normally have at least three-quarters of the class, and this year we’ve got all but one,” said Nancy Whitelaw, who went on to work in nursing administration. She still lives in London, Ont., and along with other local members of the graduating class, helps take care of food and drinks for the reunions.
“People that make that kind of an effort, they really value the four years we had together at Western. Those are your formative years,” she said.
The class composite showing Western’s nursing graduates in 1973. (Mary T. Reid photo)
“It’s so nice to check in and see where they are at in their lives. Just to see each other, it’s lovely.”
Reid even sent daily emails to the entire class list during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many were still working in public health or other nursing positions, sharing a morning “smile” to brighten outlooks in a dark period.
The class of ‘73 went on to work in a variety of nursing roles, from hospitals to home care to teaching to public health.
Their time at Western was a different era, requiring starched cotton nursing uniforms, white shoelaces – inspected for cleanliness – and hats fixed onto one’s hair with velcro.
Coward remembered wearing a wig on “bad hair days.”
“It was the late 60s, early 70s, we shortened our uniforms so they wouldn’t be down to our knees,” Whitelaw recalled.
“There were elements of that era that brought us together.”
Other members of the class described a collective effort to push back against the norms.
“By the time we graduated, that whole ‘starchiness’ had changed a little bit. It was a real time of change.” – Nancy Whitelaw, BScN’73
“We thought we were rebels,” Whitelaw added.
They worked hard but had fun, playing powderpuff football, acting in musicals through Western’s production company Purple Patches and sliding down UC Hill on pieces of cardboard in the winter.
The group bonded over the course of their degrees, writing a class song reflecting their experiences in clinics and class, and even hosting a “roast” with all their instructors at a graduation dinner celebration. The song lyrics appear at each reunion, Reid said, for a rousing chorus of their own musical stylings and Western’s traditional song.
Whitelaw gave credit to Reid for ensuring the reunions happen every five years like clockwork.
“There are certain heroes like her who really are very thoughtful about how to keep the group together.”
We All Wanted to be Nurses, a song written by Western’s nursing Class of 1973 and sung at each reunion to the tune of Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
We came to this establishment to learn to be a nurse.
We hoped it was for better and it wouldn’t be for worse.
We packed up our belongings and we moved to Western “U.”
And now we’re moving on…
Chorus:
We all wanted to be nurses.
We all wanted to be nurses.
We all wanted to be nurses.
And so we all moved on.
We started in our first year, so eager to find out
The excitement and the glamour, that’s what nursing’s all about.
It didn’t take us long to learn that this was not quite true
But still we all moved on.
Chorus:
We learned to empty all those bed pans.
We learned to take the old folks’ temperatures.
And then, we learned how to communicate
And still we all moved on.
Our second year was filled with things that every nurse should know
We saw the baby at its birth and then we watched it grow.
We visited our families and wrote our diaries too
Isn’t there an easier way to make our dreams come true?
Chorus: But we wanted to be nurses
Still we wanted to be nurses
Yes, we wanted to be nurses
And so we all moved on.
By the time we reached our third year, we were half way to the end.
We took the early bus to work; the driver was our friend.
Those winter morns were so damn cold; 5:30 came so fast
Our care plans took us half the night; How did we ever last?
Chorus:
We learned to take the nice man’s stitches out
We learned to put the ladies’ catheters in
We learned the ropes involved in medicine
And then at night we all went home to assess our patient’s state.
We came back for our senior year, thought it would be a breeze
Once you’ve made it this far, you should surely pass with ease.
But once more this just shows to go, we didn’t have it right
Doing all those diaries, they kept us up all night!
Chorus:
We visited our psychiatric patient.
We visited our geriatric patient.
We visited our multi-problem patients
And worked like hell to get all of our diaries in on time!
We’re leaving this establishment; we’ve finished with this school
They must be glad to see us go—we’ve broken every rule.
But still it’s sad to leave this place and all the friends we’ve made
But we must all move on.
Chorus: We all wanted to be nurses.
We all wanted to be nurses.
We all wanted to be nurses.
And now our dreams can all come true…
…but we must all move on!
Find a detailed schedule of events for Homecoming 2023 here.
