Sandra Carrier, a nurse at Port Perry Hospital, was thrilled the day her daughter called to tell her she had discovered a nurses cape at a consignment shop in Lindsay. Sandra loved the romance of the heavy wool, lined, elegantly constructed capes that nurses used to wear as part of their uniform when they ventured outside.
The nurses capes of the 1950s had their roots in nursing uniforms from World War 1, known as tippets. The style continued on after the war and became inextricably linked with the image of an efficient, capable nurse, on duty to serve.
“I always wanted a cape,” says Sandra. “They were just so nurse-like.” On a day off from her nursing duties in Port Perry, Sandra drove to Lindsay to check out the cape. She found an immaculate navy blue cape with a perky stand up collar, lined in bright red, complete with the initials of the original owner still stitched inside. Exactly what she had been looking for.
“It was lovely,” says Sandra. Little did she know that the original owner of the cape would not be anonymous for long.
During a casual chat with Port Perry resident Wilma Cotton, 82, one of Sandra’s patients who she knew to be a former nurse, Sandra mentioned that she had found an authentic nurses cape. “I told her I had found this perfect cape,” says Sandra. Then, Wilma asked her about the initials. “I told her I wasn’t sure what they were, but I would bring it in.”
Sandra Carrier, a nurse at Port Perry Hospital, shows a section of a
beautiful navy and red nurses cape with the initials of its original owner,
who she met quite by accident.
Sure enough, the initials were WJS, Wilma Cotton’s maiden name initials. The cape that Sandra’s daughter had found in the back of a Lindsay consignment store had belonged to Wilma when she first started nursing, back in 1950.
“It was so special and so surprising,” says Sandra. “ I had been looking for a long time, they are really hard to find. It wasn’t anything special in their day because everybody had one. I think she was very happy for it to go to someone who would appreciate it and care for it.”
Indeed. “I was happy that it found a good home,” says Wilma, who is settled back into her apartment at the Port Perry Villa, after her recent hospital stay. “When we were getting ready to downsize and move to the villa, and I was going through my stuff and found the cape, I thought that maybe some dramatic club could use it. So I took it in to Lindsay to Vicki’s Values and donated it there, and the uniform too.
“We didn’t really wear it much,” says Wilma. “I went into nursing the year Peterborough Civic Hospital was new. I was the first student in a new room, and there was a tunnel between the residence and the hospital. We used to run through the tunnel instead of going outside, so I didn’t use the cape that much. It was almost in mint condition because it hadn’t been worn.”
Besides the pleasant surprise of her cape finding a home with one of her very own nurses, Wilma had to swallow some surprise at the price Sandra paid for it. “Five dollars! For a wool cape! That kind of shook me because it was worth more than five dollars. But I was glad it got a good home and she really did appreciate it. I guess she wears it to work sometimes.”
Sandra recently headed back to Lindsay to pick up two of Wilma’s nursing dresses and cap, which were also at the same shop. She intends to wear one of the dresses this fall, during the ‘Murder Mystery Evening’ at Scugog Shores Museum’s annual Murder Mystery Dinner.
Sandra writes the script for the always-sold-out show, and this year, she will wear a vintage, blue nursing dress once worn by Wilma Cotton as she performed her nursing duties.
Clothing is not the only thing that connects these two women. The other strong link is their love of nursing. Wilma remembers her nursing years with warmth.
“I loved it. I just loved it. I worked mostly in the obstetrical ward, now they call it new life or maternity. I spent a lot of time in the delivery room and labour room. We didn’t have husbands hanging over or gaping all around. I would have been horrified if I’d had my babies in front of a whole bunch of people,” laughs Wilma.
Sandra Carrier is also a maternity nurse, along with her other nursing duties. “Nursing is changing a lot,” she concedes. “I do like helping people, helping them feel better. It’s often just the little simple things you do for people, all the technology and things aren’t as important as the simple things you do to make people feel better.” Wilma Cotton would agree.
When Wilma and her husband, now deceased, moved into Port Perry Villa, “We got rid of our treasures,” says Wilma. These days, Sandra Carrier can be spotted leaving Port Perry Hospital on a brisk day with one of those treasures draped over her shoulders, just like the nurses used to do.
By Karen Stiller
Focus on Scugog
