Donna Gash
When I look back on my days as a patient at Fort San so man things come to mind. I’d like to share some of my San thoughts with you.
I was a patient at Fort San from July, 1955 to November of 1956. At the time I entered the San I was nearly 13 years of age which placed me on an Adult floor. I had three roomates—two teenagers and an older woman that played the part of our Mother.
There were two older teens in the next room which meant we had peers our age on the floor. Unfortunately for me I started my grade 9 in the San and was discharged after I had started my grade ten. We did our own schooling with correspondence outdated material and a retired school teacher checked our work and helped us a couple of times a week. Being typical teenagers left on our own to do school work did cause some discipline problems. I vividly recall one time being caught playing a lively game of Canasta when Mrs. Johnson came unexpectantly to check our work. We heard heels clicking down the marble hallway and flipped our makeshift card table (actually a sheet of plywood covered with a sheet on one of our beds) and grabbed our school books to appear studious angelic students. We got a look from Mrs. Johnson as playing cards fluttered all over the floor in front of her as she entered our room. So much for self-discipline when it comes to studying!!
Pearl Martin, Mary et Bud jouant au Cribbage sur les marches du côté Est, c.1955. Courtoisie de Donna Gash
Another “fun” incident comes to mind: We used to go out on the roof to take pictures. One time while taking pictures the wind blew the door closed and it locked. There we were out on the roof with no way to get back into our room. Yelling and waving finally got the attention of staff members walking by the building to work. They came up to our room and let us in. Needless to say we were reprimanded and put in the Head Nurse’s incident report book for this.
Donna Gash (née Molten). Photo prise sur la véranda du Fort San, c.1955. Courtoisie de Donna Gash
The staff became our friends. A good example of this: At Christmas for the patients who weren’t well enough to get a pass to go home, gathered in our large room for turkey supper with al the trimmings. This special meal was served on our make-shift table complete with place cards and Christmas candles for centre pieces. Also, during the year the staff got birthday cakes for these celebrating birthdays each month. When we had trouble sleeping—the night orderly would make us toast and cocoa after midnight. The patients used to have “pools” on everything from sports events such as the Grey Cup, World Series and Stanley Cup winners that tickets (& scores) were purchased by us and any staff members that wished to bet. I even remember buying a ticket on the date the river ice would crack straight down from the San. When you are in a hospital for months and months things like this break the monotony for those hospitalized.
Madame Molten et sa fille (Donna Gash, née Molten), c.1955. Courtoisie de Donna Gash
Both my paternal Grandfather dies in the San in 1948 and My Mother in 1961 after two major operations on her lung in Saskatoon. In the two separate operations she has sick ribs removed, right lobe removed and her right lung collapsed before the disease took her from us. She was a patient in the San at the same time I was there. She was very highly positive while I wasn’t sick but did have a lesion on my lung that remains today. My mother was on the West side of the main building and I was on the East side. We got legal passed twice a week to see each other. On between passes we sometimes saw each other illegally by me going over a roof and through a window to do this. A number of years after my Mother’s death I returned to the old San building to a connection and overcame the association with the loss of my Mother and the grounds plus the buildings from the past. It helped me let go of my Mother and see the San in a new light.
