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and engaged. Some of her male colleagues called her "the virgin surgeon". (Hey it was the 1950s). Also one of her medical school male colleagues offered to marry her out of the blue because she was of an advanced age (early 20s) and unmarried. And he thought that was so sad.

My sister went to business school in the 1980s and one Professor asked if anyone had a parent who was in medicine. My sister put up her hand. He went on to say a whole bunch of economics about medicine using "your father" as an example. "Your father" this and "your father" that. When he asked my sister to add to the discussion he said "tell me your father's experience". My sister started her part of the discussion with "My mother.... " Everybody laughed at the professor.

My mother was doing her residency at a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia when the Springhill coal mining disaster happened about 2 hours away. (I think it was the 1956 explosion because she was married in Sept 1958, around when there was another mining disaster, but am not sure). She and her fellow med students quietly discussed who should go to the rescue staging site in Springhill as volunteers and who should stay. It was decided because my mom was a woman she should stay behind. She opened the newspaper the next day, or so, and there was a picture of her mother with the caption ".....
...... (her mother's name) organizes the rescuers at Springhill minning disaster", or something like that. (Her mother was a nurse and a community organizer who lived less than an hour away).