News Article - Helen (Shillington) Andis
Paper: Daily Oklahoman, The (Oklahoma City, OK)
Title: City nurse, 80, thankful, proud of career, family
Date: June 21, 2004
A train trip to Oklahoma City appealed to Helen Andis as a great adventure in 1942. She and her twin sister, Ellen, had recently graduated from high school, and the rural Idaho teens weren't sure what they would do next. The twins lived with their parents, Roy and Martha Shellington, and eight brothers and sisters. Lack of money limited their plans, but a visit from their aunt, Bertha Shellington, provided a career choice.
"She was a woman who made things happen," Andis said of her aunt. "She and her sister, my aunt Hilda, were my father's sisters. They were registered nurses and had come from Canada to Oklahoma City to work at the Home of Redeeming Love as nurses and missionaries. Aunt Bertha said we should come to Oklahoma City and study nursing. I had never thought about becoming a nurse, but my sister always wanted to."
The twins graduated May 12. On May 21, they were in Oklahoma City.
Today, at age 80, Andis continues her career on the fifth floor in the geriatric psychiatric unit in Presbyterian Tower, where many of her patients are younger than she is.
"I've never regretted for a moment my nursing career," Andis said. "My favorite part of nursing is sitting with patients and talking to them. I like the personal touch. I've gone through all phases of nursing, and things have changed so much. Now, everything is on computer, and I have survived this change."
Andis said when she and her sister set out for Oklahoma City, they were normal teens excited about their journey, but they also knew their aunts were religious and strict.
The boys they were dating were in Arizona working in the lettuce fields, and when they returned to Idaho, the Shellington twins were gone.
The girls looked forward, not back, as they began their nursing careers and their lives in a new state. It wasn't until nearly four years had passed and World War II ended that their father could afford to send them the money to return home for a visit.
Just before she left for the trip home, the young nurse was introduced to Emory G. Andis at a family picnic. They married secretly in November 1947, so she wouldn't get kicked out of the nursing program. Student nurses could not be married at the time.
Andis remembers her husband as tall and handsome in his Army uniform. He had received his orders to go overseas, and Andis said she knew the young man had his mind on the Army and where he was going, but she remembers wishing he had paid more attention to her.
During those early years, one of Andis' brothers was a prisoner of war from 1941 to 1944, when he died in captivity. Andis said American prisoners of war were put aboard unmarked coal ships meant to be sunk.
"I don't know how my mother stood it," Andis said. "She was so wonderful and so patriotic. But we were busy at the hospital, and we worked 56 hours a week and lived in the dorm, and actually the hospital owned us. It was exciting, and we were doing things for others, and I think in those days, I believed I had to earn my right to be on this Earth."
Andis sat in her spotless, cheerful Norman home and recalled the early days of the nursing career and the challenges nursing presents today.
"Nursing is a wonderful career, and I've never regretted a minute of it," Andis said. "I don't think you learn how to be a good nurse. I think you have to have the heart of a servant and want the best for your patient. My husband and I raised five children. And for years I got just five hours of sleep a night with the combination of children, nursing and helping my husband with farm work. I think I have more energy now than I did then."
Kay Geiasson, a nurse who works with Andis, described her as a valuable role model with a wonderful, positive attitude.
"We went to computerized medicine this year," Geiasson said. "It's a system that has humbled a lot of people, but Helen mastered it. It's hard walking up and down these halls, but Helen goes 90 miles an hour. She totally enjoys her work, and she spends a lot of time with the patients, and they respond to her. She is so vibrant, her 80th birthday - June 18 - nearly slipped up on us."
During her career, Andis has worked 16 years at the Veterans Affairs hospital, two years at the old Mercy Hospital, and she has been with OU Medical Center since 1980.
Andis said the years have slipped up on her, too, and she can't believe she is 80. She said her husband died in 1996. Her work keeps her happy and busy, and she doesn't have time to get lonely.
"I am living in the best generation," she said. "I'm proud of my family, thankful for my church and my work in nursing. I can't believe how blessed I am. If I could change anything, I would have laughed more with my children and hugged them more often."
BY JOCONNA AQUIRRE, THE OKLAHOMAN
Copyright (c) 2004 Oklahoma Publishing Company
Author: Chris Jones
Section: FAMILIES
Page: 1C
Copyright (c) 2004 Oklahoma Publishing Company