Ruth
Ruth was born in 1934. She lived with her brother, mother and grandmother in Waterford until she was 18 years old.
While she would go on to train as a nurse, Ruth's first experiences with health care occured during the Great Depression when home remedies were often the only accessible option.
"You started off with home remedies until the symptoms increased in severity. When they got bad enough to bother your grandmother, then she would consult with the doctor. I just thought it was worth remarking that consulting with the doctor didn’t mean a telephone call...We didn’t have a phone until the mid-40's. [It] meant grab the nearest handy kid and say run down to Doctor Sutherland and ask him if he'll stop in and have a look at Ruth. And so that was ‘consulting the doctor’ and of course, there was no health coverage, health insurance coverage, either available or that we had."
Ruth, 1957. Photo Courtsey of Ruth.
Polio was not the only threat during her childhood. Ruth's recalls a six-week quarantine and isolation from her family when she contracted scarlet fever.
"There were big cardboard signs on the door to say the house was under Quarantine. My mother and my brother moved out and went across the street and boarded with our neighbors. Because they could not come in and out of the house, my mother still had to go to work to earn a living and my brother had to go to school. So, with me at home, my grandmother looked after me."
For milder childhood illnesses, such as measles, mumps, and chickenpox, Ruth recalled:
"It was fairly common to encourage the siblings to be exposed in the hope that they would get it too, and get it over with ... and then be immune. If you think about our general behaviour when someone today gets an infection, such as streptococcal or staphylococcal, people don't get overly concerned about those and think, oh dear, you might give it to me. Polio on the other hand, was something that they considered to be both “catching”, and with terrible outcomes."
Quarantine Sign, Toronto, 1947. Source: www.museumofhealthcare.ca/explore/exhibits/vaccinations/polio.html via Library and Archives Canada
Ruth remembers summer was polio season. The biggest impact was restrictions of swimming until cases stopped. Another image she recalls is seeing footage of children in iron lungs.
"As a youngster I knew that [polio]was contagious. I knew that it could cause permanent paralysis. I knew that it could prevent a person from breathing. Because we had, back in the day, we had one movie house in Waterford. And if you went to see the cowboy movie on Saturday afternoon, it always had a news reel first. That's where we saw all the stuff about the war. But, I had also seen film of multiple iron lungs, all with children in them and thought to myself, all you can see is the head. How can they live like that? "
The Ottawa Journal, 4 February 1950.
Ruth earned a Masters of Health Administration at the University of Toronto and has worked in the Public Health field for over 30 years. Starting as a Victorian Order Nurse, she taught at University of Toronto before coming to the Brant County Health Unit as a public health nurse, then supervisor, and Director of Nursing.
During her stint as Director, Ruth worked through the 1978 outbreak of polio in Southwestern, Ontario, when approximately 90 people were quarantined.
She helped organize immunizations for thousands of people in Brant and the surrounding region. It was a franctic time with long line ups and a low supply of doses.
"It was all hands to the pump. Because there was this sudden surge of, immunize as many people as you possibly can, and it was at that point that I really, fully realized how little attention people paid to the whole business of being protected against disease. People, more than half, three quarters of them basically thought that probably they had had some needles when they were a kid but they weren't sure, they certainly had no idea what they were"
"When [the 1978 Outbreak] was at its peak, people were coming to the health unit for polio shots. They were lining up, not just at the back door of the health unit, but up the hill, all down Terrace Hill, down the other side, right around the health unit itself. We were doing everything we could. We had extra people helping to give the vaccine. And then we were running short."
1978 Brant Health Report. Report courtesy of Ruth.
Ruth has lived locally her entire life. Married for over 61 years with three children, Ruth is currently enjoying retirement.
Ruth in 2020. Photo courtesy of Ruth.