KAREN:  How often did you talk to the doctors? 

JOYCE:  I had very poor communication from here.  We didn't have telephones.  Eventually we got special shortwave radio.  It's still here because it's operated with tubes and they no longer use tubes.  We couldn't get it repaired.  But we had this high antenna out here.  And with that, we could reach Kodiak or sometimes we could even reach Anchorage, but usually, when most of the emergencies occurred was at night when nobody was listening.  That was very difficult.  One serious situation, my husband was out trying to get the radio at the store and get the attention of the people there, and they were so tired of having drunk -- drunks coming around trying to get in, they wouldn't pay any attention.  And I was desperately needing some advice.  Sometimes I just had to go on the basis of what my books and my training had said, even if it meant doing things that were not really in a doctor's room.  I think every health aide, if they would be honest with you, would tell you the same thing.  There's times when you can't get anybody else to do it.  Sometimes it's with advice if you can reach a doctor, but you have to do things before it's possible to get the patient evacuated. 
I found it a very exciting thing to be involved with.  Now my daughter is a doctor and sometimes she gave me information that was beyond what I was supposed to know. 

KAREN:  Do you feel, you know, you would say those situations where sometimes you were faced with having to do more because you couldn't reach anybody. 

JOYCE:  Yes. 

KAREN:  Do you feel like you had sufficient training to be able to cover those situations? 

JOYCE:  I think so, along with the health aide manual, and other medical books that I kept on hand.  When the weather is such, you might think this is close to Kodiak, but if planes can't get in and the weather is too bad for boats to go through, Spruce Cape between here and Kodiak is one of the most dangerous spots in Alaska in a storm.  That's where tides meet, a rocky cape out there.  Sometimes you just can't get patients out.  And whatever has to be done, has to be done.  I was health aide here and health practitioner for 35 years here in Ouzinkie. 

KAREN:  So what year did you retire? 

JOYCE:  '93.  It was a couple weeks before my 76th birthday.  I retired the 1st of October, and I was 76 on the 17th of October.
 
KAREN:  So you just had a birthday -- you just turned 86? 

JOYCE:  87. 

KAREN:  87.