Visiting East Grinstead Hospital

Heroes Remember

Visiting East Grinstead Hospital

Transcript

Well, the first time I went was a Sunday in July. It was a hot day and someone was brought in and they had this yellow, I don’t know what you call that material over his wounds and the smell was terrible and I didn’t know if I could do it. And I said, “If others can do it, I can do it too.” These were burn victims, some burned beyond recognition and they had plastic surgery operations one after the other and they survived that. The hospital ward was a little different. They had their keg of beer and they could wear their uniforms, not hospital blues or anything like that so the plastic surgeons kept up the morale as well as rebuilding the men and I remember one of them showed me a picture of himself, a nice young fellow, and he said, “This is what I’m supposed to look like.”

Description

Ms. Lavallee shares her personal story about her experience of visiting the burn victims of East Grinstead Hospital and finding the strength to socialize with them.

Olga Lavallee

Ms. Lavallee was born in 1921 in North Vancouver, British Columbia. From her childhood, she was fascinated with airplanes. At age 21, much to her parents chagrin, Ms. Lavallee joined the Air Force. After training, Ms. Lavallee accepted the opportunity to go overseas and travelled to England onboard the Mauritania. She lived and worked in London in the administration field. During her social time, Ms. Lavallee cared for the many burn victims of East Grinstead hospital in England providing comfort and consolement to the wounded soldiers. After discharge, she returned to Vancouver. Ms. Lavallee holds great pride for her service to Canada and is an active member of the association for Women Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

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