Betty Shaver, our only living daughter, was born in Wilmerding, and
like the other children secured her grade schooling in the Public
Schools of Wilmerding. She also was a student of the Union High School
in Turtle Creek, from which she was graduated in 1935.
As a growing girl she was a victim of chronic attacks of pneumonia,
in light form, several years in succession, but the removal of her
tonsils relieved the condition, and with the exception of an appendectomy
she developed into a healthy young lady.
In her youth she displayed a tendency towards a motherly attitude
in caring for the other members of the family and with these inclinations
and her mother’s encouragement she decided on a career of nursing.
Accordingly, following her High School graduation, she entered training
at Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh. In those days the training was more
strenuous than today, with the introduction of Practical Nurses and
Nurse’s Aides, but Betty was a bright student and a willing
worker and under the rigid training of the Sisters Nurses, of the
institution, after three years, she emerged as a Nurse. With the State
examination she earned the title of Registered Nurse.
Her initial entry into the practice of her profession was largely
confined to private duty and as a surgeon’s assistant. Efficient
and capable, with a cheery disposition, she readily found patrons
of her service , but
in private nursing she soon found that remuneration from well to do
people was time consuming. She then entered Industrial Nursing.
Under stable conditions with all the "fringe " benefits
afforded industrial employees, she finds her professional duties much
more satisfactory, At the present time (1958)
she is one of the outstanding nurses in the Relief Department of the
Westinghouse Air Brake Company of Wilmerding, Pa.
Betty never married. As a constant companion for her mother and with
her interest in her home, she passed up romance and is contented,
in her off duty hours, in the arrangement of the home and the preparation
for the homecoming of her brothers and their families. Of an easy-going
disposition, she is often taken advantage of… inveigled into
being a babysitter for some of her nieces and nephews. She has also
made sacrifices for her brothers, especially her younger brother Verne,
in enabling him to attain his goal as physician.
I'm sure all will agree that the above sketch
does little justice to Aunt Betty. I will not insult her other nieces
and nephews by giving my own account, but I offer the following image,
a souvenir, which allows her to describe herself better than I ever
could:
a souvenir
—John H Shaver
