Marilyn La Rose
“For most of my life I have found that once somebody is ill or needs help in some way, they know they can call on me. Let’s just say, I am always at their service.”
Nearly all of the persons we feature each week have given a life of service by using to the maximum their respective God-given talents and gifts, which ultimately make them special. Marilyn La Rose of New Amsterdam has lived a life of service; service to the sick and those who were in her care. Then she gave of herself even more through the Lions Club of New Amsterdam, in several positions.
Service is the motto of Marilyn La Rose and today, retired and all, she continues to take care of her 97-year-old father, Percy, believed to the oldest mental health-care worker alive in Guyana. Marilyn enjoys it, she said and if she had to live her life all over again, she’d serve as a nurse and matron as well as midwife. Her mother, Marianne, is also still alive.
Marilyn La Rose attended the All Saints’ Primary from age 6. She later attended the Roman Catholic Girls’ School, and Victoria High, also in the town, following which she wrote the College of Preceptors Exam and secured six subjects.
In late ‘60s, she was a member of the Lionettes Organization, a semi-military group for young people, managed by Inspector Martin Pereira, who was assisted by Sgt David Reddock.
“We used to go and practice three afternoons per week. I remember those days well… we did these skillful types of marching”.
Marilyn was also a member of the Cougars Club in the early 1960s. At that time, they played volleyball at the N/A Fire station court.
During that hectic period, she taught for 3 years at St Therese’s Primary School.
She then left teaching and decided to enter nursing, since she liked caring for people.
“I am the eldest of nine children, so I was always in the position helping my mother take care of the rest, so I had a caring instinct and that encouraged me to go into nursing”.
She assumed duties as a Student Professional Nurse on May 10, 1965 and wrote her finals in 1968. On December 6, 1968, she was appointed Staff Nurse. She worked on all the wards for about a year and was selected to do her midwifery training a year later. She was appointed Midwife on October 3, 1971.
Receiving a special retirement gift from Sister Javitrie Eugene and the students of the New Amsterdam School of Nursing at the N/A Hospital in October 1999.
Nursing
Marilyn reminisced about her years spent in a career which she loved every so dearly; a career which she said that family support is needed.
“You cannot stand alone; you need the support of your relatives to make it as a nurse. The family is supposed to assist the nurse, especially as it relates to working shifts and going to out-stations.”
After passing her Midwifery exams, she worked at Fort Wellington Hospital in 1971 where she spent 6 months. She returned to East Berbice and was assigned to the eye department at the New Amsterdam Hospital, where she managed the operating theatre services and the wards. She worked there until May 1985 and later transferred to the Supervisor’s office, where she supervised shifts and allocated nurses, among other duties.
She later applied to become a Ward Sister and was appointed same on April 2, 1974. La Rose was assigned at the Fort Wellington Hospital from 1979-1981 as Sister-in-Charge. She was responsible for the nursing and ancillary staff management.
Marilyn continued to work full-time in the Supervisor’s office after 1981. Subsequently, she was appointed Middle-Management Junior Departmental Sister on October 22, 1986; Matron – 1 on July 1, 1991 and on February 17, 1997 she became Matron – 2 , a position she held until January 1, 2000, when she retired from the nursing system.
“I have never regretted being a nurse. To be a nurse you have to be a person who can be forbearing, really sympathetic. My life has been much richer because of my profession.”
It is very important, she stated, that nurses communicate properly with patients’ relatives.
“The mission of a good nurse is to preserve life and to maintain good health; to prevent illness and assist in the curative aspect when the patient gets ill, and to assist the patient to their dying day. A nurse has to be very tolerant. Nurses need to be confidential. We can discuss the condition, but never the person. “I know in our time, we were told that nurses need to be seen and not heard; it doesn’t mean that nurses should not have a voice, but in a situation of illness, you need quietude—no shouting across the corridors and across wards.”
Lion Deborah Backer presents Ms La Rose (right) with a special lapel pin marking her conversion from the Lioness to Lions Club in 2003
Marilyn joined nursing at a time when they wore different uniforms to distinguish the various kinds of nurses, and she reflected “…but today everybody is in white”.
She stated that she enjoyed working as a midwife because it was “a responsibility to two persons—mother and baby”. She recalled an incident that really affected her as well as cause her to emotionally breakdown on the job.
“I was a Third Year Student Nurse and was assigned one night to the casualty department. In those days, they used to do home delivery, and this midwife came across the Berbice River with a patient, a very obese patient. The minute she put the woman on the bed, I observed her draw her last breath and what upset me even more, was that the baby died due to the absence of oxygen. This baby just kept tumbling and tumbling and tumbling in this woman’s stomach until it died. It still gives me chills when I remember that.”
“I knew as a nurse that I was not expected to be so emotional, but I honestly couldn’t bear it and I cried terribly, because I just felt so helpless.”
She recalled another instance at the Fort Wellington Hospital, when in 1971, a woman came to deliver her child in the night and the blood-pressure apparatus had ‘conked out’. Marilyn recounted that she again felt virtually powerless, since she could not test the woman’s pressure, which was imperative at the time.
“The patient complained asked me to ‘do something’ as she was not feeling well. I could see she wasn’t. I had no blood pressure apparatus, so what I did…it’s a chance I took…I drew up an injection called a cocktail, and I just told myself that her pressure was high and I needed to do that. I prayed over it with the injection in the dish and gave it to her. She subsequently went to sleep.”
Marilyn stated that at 5:00am, after she had awakened the other patients, she went to the expectant mother. “I remember touching her with my index finger to wake her up and she told me that she felt much better… and she repeated it. She told me that the injection had really helped her because she was ‘seeing stars’ and she believed that if I didn’t do anything, something bad would have happened to her.
“That was a very challenging experience for me, whereby I made a critical decision on my own. As a nurse you have to pray, because sometimes there are situations with patients, where you need to apply spiritualism. I sincerely believe that.”
When asked what was different about nursing from then to today, she made specific mention of training and methods.
“The government only used to train in New Amsterdam, Linden and St Joseph’s Hospital… as well as Georgetown Hospital. More nurses are being trained today…so much so that they have to be trained in shifts. That did not happen long ago and I don’t know how effective it is having to train so many people at a time, because remember, nursing is serious business—its life, health and death – and you have to be very, very careful that people understand what they have to do and as I described to you, it can be very challenging sometimes.”
She praised the training of nurses back in her time.
Receiving a gift from then Region Six Chairman, Mr Oscar Clarke for being the Best Ophthalmology Nurse in her graduating class in 1973
“I must say, we had the privilege of being tutored and trained by Medical Consultants, Gynecologists, Obstetricians, Surgeons, etc., and they would go to the classroom and lecture at length to us, and in particular cases, they would take us and we would be around the patients’ bedsides. Today, I have observed that student-nurses do visits to the actual wards and observe patients, but they do not seem to be spending as much time in training as we did.”
Lionism
But it wasn’t only as a dutiful nurse that Marilyn’s services were required, she had more to give. And so it was that Mrs. Leila Clarke-Daniels recommended her to join the New Amsterdam Lions Club in October 1995. They had the Lioness Club back then, but the members were asked to convert into Lionism, and one club emerged, which La Rose converted to two years later.
She held several positions as a Lions Member, including Health Committee Chairperson and Education Chairperson. She was twice awarded the prestigious ’Lion of the Year’ in 1997 and 1998, as well as several Committee Chairperson Awards. She received the Presidential Award in 2001 and 2003, as well as Zone Chairperson Award in 2004. She was President on two occasions – 2002-2003 and 2009-2010.
“As a child, I was always in the position to care. I went through it as a nurse and in Lionism, they expected you to take your profession or whatever you were involved in, to assist. And so I took my nursing skills into the organization (Lions). And her skills were needed, since the flagship project for Lions International was eye- care.
“I was able to get some of my colleagues (nurses) to come along and assist the Lions Club in setting up an eye-clinic”.
With the assistance of Texas-based Guyanese, Dr Tulsie Dyal Singh, the Lions Club benefitted from a major service project and training programme, of which La Rose was appointed Chairman, whereby numerous persons were trained in eye care. The eye-care centre still exists and operates today at the New Amsterdam Lions Den.
“I was able to train nurses right there to do the basics and tell them about various eye conditions—at least I put them there and showed them the way.”
“You teach what you know, because as a nurse and retired matron—its two ways—the profession and the management. You take your skills there and can also learn from Lionism. As a member of the Lions Club, I have learnt that one needs to continue to educate oneself and not only plan and execute fundraisers and service projects.”
“Being the eldest of my siblings essentially put me in a position to serve and to assist my mother, so I was always in a leading situation, if you will, when it comes to care. For most of my life I have found that once somebody is ill or needs help in some way, they know they can call on me. Let’s just say, I am always at their service.”
By Leon Suseran | Kaieteur News