Gladys carries on dispensing care
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GLADYS Simpson has been dispensing a friendly face, listening ear and medical support to the people of Elgin since 1976.
The community nurse has retired following a career in the National Health Service spanning 47 years.
However, the caring won’t stop for Gladys (65), who hopes to fill some of her free time with a part-time job as a home carer.
Colleagues past and present gathered to say farewell at the Linkwood Medical Centre in New Elgin.
She has been a popular figure at the centre for 35 years, firstly as the Institution Road Medical Centre, then Victoria Crescent and latterly as Linkwood following its move to a purpose-built facility at the new Elgin South development.
Gladys, who lives in Castlehill Street, just a stone’s throw from the medical centre, admits she will miss the patients and colleagues she has worked with over the years.
"I have thoroughly enjoyed my job and meeting people has been the best thing about it. Many of the patients have become like friends and when they have died it has been sad because I know them and their families so well," she said.
"I went to see one woman yesterday and she flung her arms around my neck and started crying. A lot of patients have asked me to go and see them before I leave."
Gladys admitted the paperwork and form-filling involved is the aspect of the work that she won’t miss.
Her caring role also extends to her home life as she is the main carer for her 93-year-old father David Burr, and she is keen to carry on working a couple of days a week as a home carer.
Originally from Glass, near Huntly, Gladys left school at 15 and became a mother’s help for a doctor’s wife in Aberdeen. The child she helped looked after was the Rev Ranald Gauld, now a minister in Keith.
She moved to Elgin at the age of 17 and started her enrolled nurses’ training at Dr Gray’s Hospital in 1964. From there she moved to Killearn on the outskirts of Glasgow to complete specialist training in orthopaedics, returning to Elgin 18 months later to work at Spynie Hospital.
In 1970 husband Sandy’s employment took the family to Northumberland, where Gladys has a brother, and she did psychiatric and community nursing at St Mary’s Hospital in Stannington and in Ashington.
The couple moved back to Elgin when their daughter Tracy was three months old and Gladys soon found a role at the Institution Road Medical Centre, although the community nursing team operated from the basement at the old Maryhill Maternity Hospital.
She has remained with the practice ever since, visiting patients in their homes on a regular basis.
Retirement will allow her to spend more time with grandson Logan, who is eight years old. She has also joined the Retired Nurses’ Fellowship.
