KAREN:  What were your parents' names? 

PAULA:  My mom's name was, excuse me, Maria, Maria Augustine, and my father Charlie Augustine. 

And there was eight of us children and four of us are living still.  Fred Augustine, my oldest brother, had also worked for YKHC.  Never have education all his life except in Yup'ik culture.
 
He's still living, he's 80.  And I'm the youngest one of the eight children, so he was an elder that I can look -- look up to.  And now I'm elder also, but I -- I still, you know, look up to him for good advice. 

There's always -- I worked with elders for maybe a good 20 years, and it's -- it's good that they give me a lot of support, lots of knowledge, and right way to approach everything that I have to go through.

KAREN:  Uh-hum.  Now, you said you went to school in Seattle. 

PAULA:  That was in Tacoma, Washington. 

KAREN:  In Tacoma.  Okay.  And then why did you decide to go to nursing school? 

PAULA:  Well, when I was 14 -- well, from the time I can remember, my father was a very sickly person, and -- and he was sick for a long time.  And we had no nurses, doctors.  And he was terminally ill for a long time, and my mom was the only one that took care of him, and my oldest brother. 

And he was sick for a long time so that she had -- I forgot the medical names for, you know like your hips and your elbows, the skin opened and you know.  And my mom used to put grease from the animals and put dressing on those.  And I used to wish I could help him. 

So ever since that incident and he died, you know, I -- I used to think some day I'm going to have the health care as my career. 

So when I went to St. Mary's, there was Future Nurses Club, and I joined them.  And so I -- that was a long time ago, 1953.  I was very interested in learning how to care for sick people, how to help them.  And I was storing all my health aide career and supervisor instructor and teaching.  And I'm still -- I -- after I retire in 2000, I stopped for a while. 

And then after two -- about two years later, I got that itching to do research again.  And so I'm still doing the research and learning. 

You know, the one thing, my parents were very religious and -- and used to talk to me about God all the time and about Him having created us. 

And I think being religious and being a health care provider, it was a tremendous job, you know, the body, you know.  Everything, you know, that you can see and you cannot see and you have to use microscope to look, look at the, you know, bacteria or white blood cells, red blood cells.  Just amazing, somehow with like transmitter, neurotransmitters in our body. 

Just -- I guess that's why I keep on wanting to study and I'm elder now.  Just to benefit my -- the other health care providers.