Grenfell Mission Nurse
From Northwest River

Florence Michelin

Florence (Goudie) Michelin was born in Northwest River, Labrador. After work as a nurse's aide, she became a Registered Nurse. She married trapper and fisherman Cyril Michelin of Northwest River.

EXCEPT FOR SEVEN YEARS, I lived here all my life. My parents died when I was really young. We were sort of under the Grenfell Mission. They took us in the boarding school. We could only go to grade six. Old Dr. Harry Paddon said that he wanted me to go on from there. So I had to go out to St. Anthony to finish school.

Out to St. Anthony it was really poor. It was the Depression then and they were on the dole, a lot of them. A lot of them had TB. If the father got TB, he went in the sanatorium. The mother would come to the orphanage with the kids, and work.

I went to the St. Anthony Orphan School for two years. I had an allergy and they sent me back home. So then I worked in the hospital here for a while. I was a nurse's aide, but I learned everything because Dr. Paddon taught us everything, in this small hospital.

Dr. Paddon asked me once, "What do you want to be?"

Because I worked in the hospital, I said, "I want to be a nurse." He tried hard to get me in different nursing schools. The year before he died he got me into St. Catherine's, Ontario. They had fundraising for me. He raised the funds outside. His wife Mina Paddon looked after the arrangements after he died.

I left here. I went down to Rigolet and got on the Kyle. I had to wait there for a while, before we got away. We had to wait for the boats a lot, you know. Then I went to St. Anthony and on out to St. John's. Then we drove right across the island on the train. It was the first time I was ever on a train in my life.