|
About Gertrude Dyck |
|
|
 In 1962, nine years before the UAE was born, Canadian nurse Gertrude Dyck went to work in Al Ain’s first hospital.
She lived in the UAE and Oman for more than 43 years, and is the author of “The Oasis, Al Ain Memoirs of ‘Doctora Latifa,’” first published in 1995 and available from Motivate Publishing in Dubai.
In 2002, Gertrude was recognised with two of Canada’s highest honours: the Order of Canada, and a Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal.
Gertrude told Susan Macaulay
about her life during several interviews, which took place in 1996.The
series of narratives below is based on those interviews. Gertrude now lives in a retirement home in British Columbia, Canada.
|
|
|
A Roman Adventure On The Way To Abu Dhabi |
|
|
Getting to Abu Dhabi the first time was a real adventure.
A lady at the mission planned the trip for me and bought the ticket,
because I'd never been anywhere, except once to Chicago. That was the
only time I’d ever been on a plane.
So this was my second time ever
flying, and my first time overseas. In fact, it wasn't until I started
my nursing training
that I had ever been to the United States.
A gal at the mission planned the trip for me, and she said to me it
would be wonderful if I could stop in Rome. Why in the world she
wanted me to stop in Rome I don't know. Maybe she herself had always
dreamed of going to Rome, and she thought I might like it too! Anyway,
she said, “while you're going past you can stop in Rome, go on to
Beirut, then Bahrain, and eventually Abu Dhabi.”
|
|
Click to continue...
|
|
|
Preparing For A New Life |
|
|
Getting ready to go was a long and involved process. I learned the
specialized nursing skills I would need, prepared mentally and
spiritually (the core of which was learning to trust God completely),
and raised funds for the trip.
There were lots of tasks to do as
well; I bought things, got dresses sown,
packed everything I would need for the next five years, and shipped it
to the place that would become my new home away from home.
Anyone who has ever packed for traveling, even for a short trip, knows
how hard it can be. Imagine packing to go to a place where hardly
any outsiders have visited before, and you have never traveled, and you’re
going for a year or more! Looking back now, I wonder how I managed it
all.
|
|
Click to continue...
|
|
|
A New World Opens up for Me |
|
|
By the time I was finished Bible School, I knew I wanted to go somewhere to be a missionary, but I didn't know where. I was going to train to become a teacher, because I felt somehow that was what I was supposed to do. But in my last year of Bible School some or my friends decided to go into nursing, and I thought yes, that's something that I would like.
I had already been exposed to nursing, having worked during the summers in an old folks home and in a small twelve-bed hospital, both of which I really liked. So in 1957, I started my education at the Calgary General hospital to become a registered nurse. Calgary is in Alberta and it was quite far from home for me at the time.
|
|
Click to continue...
|
|
|
Endings & Beginnings |
|
|
My Dad closed his store in about 1940, and after that he just ran the Western Grain elevator, the father of the other family in the village ran the Wheat Pool elevator.
I started school the same year my Dad stopped running the store. He had the elevator for awhile, and then he started buying a bit of land. Eventually he acquired quite a lot of land and started growing mostly wheat, along with some barley and oats.
|
|
Click to continue...
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
|
| Results 1 - 9 of 10 |
