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Hannah Anderson, |
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| MARLA: And so you lived in Old Bettles all -- all your life until -- HANNAH: Until I was -- well, it was war days, World War II days when people all moved out of here. I was 17 years old when we moved into Fairbanks. MARLA: Okay. HANNAH: And just went from there. Lived in Fairbanks and -- and part of it the Lower 48. And back to Fairbanks. MARLA: And then when did you -- HANNAH: And then back up here. MARLA: And when did you come back to Bettles? HANNAH: 1948. MARLA: Okay. HANNAH: Uh-hum. MARLA: And -- HANNAH: Met my ex-husband, Jim Anderson. MARLA: And you started working on the Bettles Lodge? HANNAH: Started -- yeah, started at the lodge. Andy hired Wilford Evans from Allakaket to cut the logs and put up the frame of the Bettles Lodge, and we started from there. It took us a while to finish. It took a long time to get the inside of the lodge all furnished. And little by little. But we moved in there in 1951. MARLA: Okay. HANNAH: 1951. MARLA: And what got you interested in being a health aide? HANNAH: Oh. After living at the lodge and that life, which was 17 years being married to Andy, running the lodge, and three -- three kids later, actually four, but we lost one, so three, moved into Fairbanks, and raised my kids in Fairbanks. MARLA: Okay. HANNAH: Back and forth. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: Fairbanks and Lower 48, back and forth. And my -- my children grew up, Eva, the daughter, grew up, got married, got all grew up, got married, David got married, I was an empty nest syndrome person. Really. So I'm kind of -- I'm in Fairbanks rattling around, you know, empty house. And not -- no -- really no direction at that -- that point. And I got a call from Bettles, Evansville, who was my sister Rhoda, Helen McConnell, Frank Tobuck, who was -- it was after land claim, they were doing this village, you know, during their village established. And so on. And my friend Helen and my sister Rhoda called me one day and said, what are you doing nowadays? And I said, well, not too much. My kids are all grown up, I'm -- I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. And they said, well, how would you like to be a health aide? I said, what? What's a health aide? And so they explained to me, you know, what a health aide, we have a position here for a health aide in Evansville. And I said, oh. Well, let me think about it. And let me look into it. Because I had no idea what health aides, you know, that program or anything. I was too involved with my children, you know, schooling and this and that. MARLA: Yeah. HANNAH: And not really knowing what was going on back in my home village -- MARLA: Yeah. HANNAH: -- at that point. And so I thought about it and I'm going, health aide? Health -- health aide. So I called my friend Dr. Johnson in Anchorage. And I said, I had an offer from my village, Evansville, Bettles, to -- if I was interested in a health aide -- being a health aide for them up there. And he said, yeah, I thought about you. I thought about throwing your hat in there. Why are people thinking about me as a health aide? And so, you know, okay. I said okay. Called my village back, called my -- the Village Council and I was all set up. | |
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Last updated 11-4-06
Last updated 11-4-06