Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna nttm 3 8
Mrs. Fred Dodds for quite a while in private duty. Thqt was early in
cazleer. And he mew re by comLng into the drugstore. 1 remrrber making
a remark one tLm to him, ''1 donSt think I'd be any gwd at all, of
use to anybody, if I ha&' t been a nurse. " "No, you would've been. That 's
your nature. " Well, that set rrvt up, you see. When I want@ pediatric
cases, nuw I was a pioneer Fn that, specializing in rg prwate duty in one
phase of nursing. Well, a woman cam to the registry. "Nr. Dodds?" She
said she wanted a nurse to take care of their baby. They bad a new baby,
brand new, from the hospital, who had bad eyes, infected qes . That was
before even the days of the drops Fn the eyes at birth.
Q. I was just writing silver nitrate down.
* A. Yes. So anyhow, he said, "You should have Miss Titt*." He phoned
q hoe and found I wasn't the=; found that I was at a &inee with a friend
fkom Harrisburg, no Harristown, up the line here a little bit, and that I
was going to go horn with her. Mr. bdds cam down to thq theatre on Fifth
and Jackson and stood outside waiting mtil I cam out arid said, "There' s a
womm up at the drugstore. I'm keeping her there until--st.le wants a nurse
for the care of this baby." I said, 'Well, I was going ta go out of town."
I was going h a with Mend, you know, for the weekend. But I sad,
"All ri&t, 1'11 go on the case. You want to take m, tabtR rre up?" So I
turned to my Mend down and went on the case. I had to q home and get into
a uniform and pack. V& bag was always packed ready to go and I went. It was
twenty-four how duty, but there was plenty of tim to sl+p when the baby
slept, I slept in the chair.
Q. In a chair?
A. Yes. Sure, ah, a nice
comfortahJe. chal-r. (laughter)
Q. Couldn ' t you have had
a cot oor a bed?
A. Well, it wasn't convenient or sonrtthing. I somtlms slept across the
end of the bed if the patient's legs dZdnvt corn ww down.
Q. Good thing you were little.
A. Yes. (laupj-iter) Well, I think I got into a robe too, because one . . .
I don't know whether to tell you this or not, but . . .
Q. Oh, sure.
A. One tim-I alwgys had breakfast when it was convenient f'rom the
babies standpofnt-Grandma was there and there was a windm between the pantry
and the djning room, and she was serving breakfast. She had served
it and as I was eating I put q' finer on the little glasq milk pitcher to
feel if it was real glass, you know, if it was cut glass a d she was looking
at rn through the little Adow from the pantry. So 3 was oh so ashamd
to think that I was caught feeling it, but she didn' t say anything.
normal
to; do.