KAREN: Well, that's why this project to talk to health aides and get the history and what it was like -- I think it's so important.

TRUDY: You know --

KAREN: -- is, you guys have done so much and haven't been recognized.

TRUDY: It mattered none to me, because like I said money didn't mean anything to us, to any of us. Any health aide that I've ever talked to I don't think money ever made that much. It didn't sway them any which way because of money. It just was their job and they're doing their job.

KAREN: So why did you keep doing it?

TRUDY: Because it was my job. And I had never worked anyplace outside of my home except the cannery and I liked it. I liked it very, very much.

KAREN: What about it did you like?

TRUDY: Taking care of people. They didn't have a nurse in Hoonah but once a month, I think. So it was good to have somebody there to help them when there wasn't anybody else.

KAREN: Now what about doctors? How often did they come around?

TRUDY: Maybe once a year. In the villages, they were -- they were scheduled to come once a year. I think that's what we had, it was just once a year.

KAREN: And the nurses, they were public health nurses? So how did you -- did you have to talk to the doctors when you got a patient?

TRUDY: Oh yeah. We certainly would. We couldn't do nothing by ourselves. We could not touch medication without talking to a doctor.

The doctor was the one to tell us what to give and if we had it we had to give it. Or if it was stocked in the clinic -- they stocked some in the clinic.

KAREN: What happens if you didn't have it in the clinic?

TRUDY: Well, they had to send it out. Then we'd have to wait. They instruct you on what to do while you're waiting for the medication. Thank God, we didn't have any real bad patients that needed medication right now, that we didn't have.

We were just fortunate like that. It's the same thing, I think, of babies that were born there. They were born there because they had no one to send them to the hospital at that time. But after we became health aides, we were fortunate enough to be able to send them by just calling a doctor and telling them that we are sure that person is going into labor.

But there was lots that got stuck at home, that started at night. Had him first thing in the morning. Oh, I got stuck a lot of times.

KAREN: So you delivered babies.

TRUDY: Uh-hum (affirmative). That's one of the things that was told that we were gonna learn. They told me when I first became a health aide that I would be just taking care of minor cuts and stuff like that, nothing major.

And I thought: “Well, that sounds like it'll be okay.” Then I ended up delivering. Didn't know the first thing about delivering a baby.

KAREN: They hadn't trained you?

TRUDY: No. I kept after them. Barbara and I kept after them to get them -- to get them to teach us. And by the time they're teaching us what they think we need to know, they never had time to do the delivery.

Then finally, I think after a couple of years. But I was pretty much by myself for about ten years. The lady that was a health aide died and she was not replaced immediately. So, what I could gather was that like it might have been about ten years, maybe less, maybe it just seemed that way to me. But I don't know --

KAREN: --- So, do you--

TRUDY: I never kept track of it. I never thought I needed to keep track of something like that.

KAREN: You didn't know someone like me would come along and start asking --

TRUDY: Yeah. Ouch! (exclamation of pain)

KAREN: Oh, I can't make you laugh, I'm sorry. So, do you remember that first baby you had to deliver?

TRUDY: Uh-hum (negative). I think about it and think about it and I -- I know that there is one girl that I delivered in my own home and I think she might have been -- the first one was Magna. Her name was Magna, Magna Kartidi, that little baby boy.

And I was glad I didn't have to run all over the country looking for the patient 'cause she was right here at my clinic.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

TRUDY: And everybody would say: “You shouldn't have that clinic at your house. ”

I said: “Why? I want it there because I don't want to have to run all over.” If somebody's hurt, they can just come to my house and just stay in my house. And that's they way I felt about it. I just needed to have them there with me because if I'm gone then my husband or my kids were there to care for them. So for many years even the doctors, I guess, didn't recognize the fact that I had that place for a clinic.

KAREN: Oh, really?

TRUDY: I know I talked to one doctor and he said: “That wasn't authorized.” Well, you know, I don't care if it is authorized or not, I'll do what I have to do to make people comfortable. I felt I had to do it.

My husband said: “Well, just do what you think you have to do.” So, there it was, he authorized it and I said: “Well, okay. I'm just gonna fix that room up for a clinic.”“Just tell me what you want done and I'll do it.” So that's what we did.

KAREN: Sounds like a good man.

TRUDY: He was. He was until he died eight years ago. He was so good, he was such a good person.