“There was no pre-natal care at hospital,” she says, “You saw the doctor at his office while you were expecting, and that was all. There were no classes, nothing like that. There were a lot of doctors who worked there, at the old hospital; Dr. Kelly, and Dr. Wilson, and two Doctors Messanger; a father and a son, and Dr. Archibald from Kingston.

“There were six nurses at the most, and a matron. Really not many nurses. When one of my boys was in there for tonsils, he was in a back room. I went in and looked after him. I washed him clean after the operation and everything. It was not very big, that hospital, maybe two or three wards, awful small rooms, and it was only two patients to each one. Upstairs was the operating room. I guess there must have been a maternity ward. It was bare necessities. Only serious reasons had you go to the hospital, and you got very good care, but not like it is today. 

“You could go to that hospital any time, day or night. There was no emergency department; if you got sick you went, that’s all. And they had nothing to work with. If you had a heart attack, maybe they’d put machines on you; EKG tracing and that, it wasn’t as good as it is now. There was no ambulance service, that came later on. 

“The rest of the time, doctors would come to make housecalls. Dr. Kelly came to Margaretsville in a sleigh in the winter; and Dr. Messanger too, they all did housecalls. Very few people had much money, for a housecall, my mum would give Dr. Kelly homemade bread. Other people around would give potatoes and apples, things like that.

The doctor delivered me at home; none of mum’s children were born in the hospital.” 
Ethel tells of one particularly memorable housecall. “When my youngest brother was born, he was born at home, and Dr. Kelly came to the house, in Victoria Vale. It was October. He arrived in a lovely dark overcoat and a white scarf around his neck. I don’t remember where the coat got put, but I know he hung the scarf over the door knob. Now my mother always had a lot of pride, and as soon as the doctor arrived, Gladys Hudgins, who was there to help my mother, she called the roll of all of the kids, and had us line up to wash our faces. Of course for a serious face washing like that, you need a clean towel. Gladys looked around, and spotted the clean white cloth hanging on the door. Well, when Dr. Kelly got ready to go, that scarf was not quite the way it had looked when he came in; we had all been dried up on it! I’ll never forget that!”