KAREN:  Why did you stick with the job so long? 

LILLIAN:  I liked working.  I liked working as a health aide.  Up until my husband told me that he didn't want me working no more. 

KAREN:  What did you like about it? 

LILLIAN:  Just to help people.  I enjoyed helping people. 
It was -- I was used to it since I start -- I was young -- I started to helping my mother-in-law deliver babies and stuff. 

And then if somebody got sick sometime, they would call and ask me if I could come down and see them.  And I did.  There's a health aide there, remember?  No, we would like you to. 

And -- and if so, we'll let -- I know there's one girl that didn't want, she had infection of the kidneys.  And it -- it turns in -- they lose a kidney, you know, if they don't get treated right away.  Because it's -- she had strep.  And strep can cause them to get kidney -- bad kidney disease.  And if they don't get treated, they lose a kidney.  They have to go -- go on dialysis.  And this is from the strep germ. 

And while I was in training, gone -- I was here in Anchorage, and I was in emergency care training.  And I -- and during that training, I worked at the ANS, they had me there in the ER.  Then I had to go to Providence and work in there.  And this is where I watched.  I could do suturing if I want -- had to, because I watched them.  You learn by watching. 

KAREN:  Uh-hum. 

LILLIAN:  You don't learn by -- I thought that's the only way I learned. 
And during that time, she had strep, that young lady had, and she would not let my alternate give her a shot.  No.  By the time I got back there, it was too late.  It had already went to her kidney. 

And then she later had to go on -- had to have her kidney removed and go on dialysis.  And she didn't get no donation -- nobody to donate her a kidney.  At the time, I don't think they started that yet.  Yeah. 

KAREN:  Well, how did you manage the long hours of being a health aide and coming to Anchorage for training?  How did you manage that with your family? 

LILLIAN:  Oh, I had my -- my kids were pretty -- teenager.  They were grown up, quite grown up by then.  And Mary was the youngest, and she had -- their dad was there, when I came in for that. 

I let him come in with me for one of them that I came here for.  And he was back in my room where I was.  I was gone all day.  And I found him down in the local bar.  And I made him come home with me.  And I told him, you're never coming with me again.  That was -- poor guy. 

KAREN:  Now, was he supportive of you taking a job initially? 

LILLIAN:  Yes, at the time.  Uh-hum.  He was.  But after he resigned from his job as a captain, he was a pilot on the boats. 

KAREN:  Barge captain? 

LILLIAN:  Yeah.  He came home and I guess, I don't know, he just didn't want me to work no more. 

KAREN:  Uh-hum. 

LILLIAN:  In the village.  Because I -- I'd be long hours, sometimes I'd stay over in Marie's place, if there was some -- some seriousness.  And when this -- let's see. 

Before I became a health aide, I had to take care of an elder.  She was real -- quite old.  And she was so sick, I don't know why the health aide didn't take her and bring her to Bethel.  And the health aide would not stay with her while she was. 

So I told Genevieve, she was my friend, I told her, could you bring a cot into her little place and I'll take care of her.  So I did. 

And here she was bleeding from her stomach.  And next morning they had to bring her out.  And they called for a plane and the health aide that didn't want to stay with her escorted her to the hospital.  I wasn't -- I wasn't the health aide, I just offered to take care of her. 

KAREN:  That was nice. 

LILLIAN:  Yeah.  She was such a nice old lady.  I learned a lot from her.

 
KAREN:  And who was that? 

LILLIAN:  Irene.  Her name was Irena Woods.  I-R-E-N-A, Irena Woods.  She taught me a lot about how to sew skins. 

I made jackets for my two daughters, or three daughters -- two, actually.  The other one was gone and married.  And I went down to her and asked her how to cut -- cut it out, and she taught me how to hole.  I had to use a little ulu, you know.  And how to sew it and how to match it with the fur.  What to do, I did. 
She helped me a lot.  She was a very learned person.  She was probably almost 90 when she died. 

KAREN:  Wow.

LILLIAN:  Uh-hum (affirmative).  Irena was -- everybody called her grandma.  Yeah.  She was a good lady.