Diary Allows City
Friends to Share
Nurses Travels
"INTh?iHn? t^haVe ha^ n°e"pP™since 1939."
nursfng'wir™nedorfeS°ImL^ Vni™si\<* °Mahoma school of
As part of the tour, they at-.
tended the International Congress of Nurses meeting in'
Stockholm, Sweden.
Long ago, Mrs. Caron said Friday,
she learned the value of taking notes
on everything new she did or saw.
Quick witted and observing, the di-
, minutive, dark-eyed nursing director
lets little happen without getting it
down in her notebook.
It was this habit that kept her as
sociates at University hospital well informed about the trip. Almost every
day of her four weeks in Europe she
sent her notes to her secretary here.
The notes then were typed, mimeo-
j graphed and distributed to anyone
interested in her whereabouts. For the
most part, they substituted for personal letters.
»iJ?f ^«nS a youns *raduate receives
lis innuH./ T°nth^N° "Penance
™v«cl1udcd- An ordinary worker receives less than that sum "
inrtSlJ0?n°my 0f large famiIies was
lr0mUd|dwidnen°ne0fMrS-Car0n'SnoteS
THE note on the lack of apples in
Finland was made shortly after
the nurses landed there. They had
flown to Pori, Finland, about 150
.miles from that country's capital,
/irom Hartfordj Conn.
I "We landed after midnight," her
first letter to Oklahoma City said. "It
was so light that it seemed like early
afternoon instead of the wee small
hours of morning. It is my understanding that during this period of
I the year it never gets dark. However,
in the winter it is light only a few
hours daily."
She explained her note about apples with a report that a heavy fros-
killed most of Finland's apple trees
in 1939, and there has been no production since.
Most of Mrs. Caron's letters were
filled with personal impressions of the
countries, people, living conditions
and the honors showered on the
American nurses. But she included
much about nursing schools and conditions in Europe.
"APARTMENT houses in Stock-
rJmc^lu arfx.?ostly one and two
rooms with bath," she wrote. "Larger
apartments have been built for large
families of three or more children
Families with four children get 40
percent rent reduction. Five children
50 percent off on rent. And families
[can get up to 70 percent rent reduction for having seven children. The
city pays the reduction."
In almost every letter from Finland
and Germany, she told of destruction
and weary, hungry people.
♦J'Ali lnterestln8 fact we learned is
that during the war all patriotic Finnish people gave their jewels to carry
I0? h<L.war' They were g^en iron
rings. Those for married women are
heavy and rounded like real wedding
rings. Those for single women are flat
bands. Wearing an iron ring is verv
patriotic." y
Russia was not among the eight1
countries visited by the nurses, but
.they did cross a section of Russiai
deep inside Finland.
[■pUSSIA has the land under a 50- i
A'V year lease, she explained. But the
Finns pay Russia more for permission i
'to operate their train on a single trip
through the section than they get in
return in the way of rent for a year
'As the train enters that section,'
Tj*ROM Helsinki she wrote: "The
X1 school of nursing here is only four
years old. The original school was
destroyed by the Russians.
"They take in 24 students twice annually. They now have 120 students
and six teachers."
In Paris, she commented on the
economical side of the European nurs-
, ing picture.
: "Salves are very low in France.
One welders how the people manage to exist. The initial salary of a
registered nurse in Paris is 2,000
; francs a month, with the exchange at
;320 francs for $1 m American cur-
I rency,
wooden shutters are pulled down from
.the outside, the Russian locomotive
lis attached, Russian soldiers and engineers ride the locomotive, and for
about two hours whoever is on the
train is closed in.
"It is an awful feeling.
I "After we passed through the zone,
the shutters were pushed up from the
outside and the sun streamed in
again. The train moved on to our
destination."
Besides Finland, Sweden, Germany
and France, the nurses visited Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, ths-
Netherlands and Switzerland before
.their return to America July 4. Mrs.
Caron spent several weeks visiting
hospitals and nursing schools in the
east before she came back to her
Idesk in Oklahoma City.
