Step back in time

Faye Hoare, left, president of the Aberdeen Hospital Alumni and Andrea Robertson, convener of the archives, open a time capsule buried in 1958 at the Aberdeen Hospital Nurses Residence. (Harvie photo)

Excitement mounted as Faye Hoare and Andrea Robertson pried open a box that had been buried long in the past.
A room full of eager on-lookers waited as the contents of a time capsule from the old Aberdeen Hospital Nurses Residence’s, buried in 1958, were resurrected for all to see.
“It is very emotional,” says Hoare, the president of the Aberdeen Hospital Alumni. “More so for me because I am turning 76 and have spent most of my life at this hospital in some way or another.”
Hoare has been associated with the Aberdeen Hospital since she was 17, and was very nervous to open the box that lay dormant for so long.
The capsule was buried during a corner stone ceremony when the residence was built in 1958, a few short years after the new Aberdeen Hospital had been erected.
Hoare studied as an RN from 1954 to 1957 and says the residence “was a wonderful thing. It was a beautiful residence, the envy of many schools across the province.”
Inside the capsule was a program from the 1958 corner stone ceremony, a letter very carefully wrapped in tinfoil, describing how the residence came to be, a review from the first meeting of the ladies auxiliary as well as a booklet from the years 1897-1956 and a 1958 year book as well as a list of all of the students and staff at the time.
Robertson, convener of the alumni archives, and Hoare read the articles aloud to surprise and laughter from the crowd as they detailed the bank balance of just more than $2,000 and the first baby born in the Aberdeen Hospital, belonging to Mr. And Mrs. Calvin MacKay of Stellarton.
“I get so emotional, because I’ve been with this place for so many years,” says Hoare admitting she thought there were more things entered in the time capsule that came from the nurses.
Hoare retired in 1994, when it was decided the residence was to be closed, at which time she was the director of the school of nursing.
She says there was never a definite plan as to when the capsule was to be resumed. “They found it when they started tearing down the building. We knew it was there but couldn’t quite remember where,” she laughs.
Her fondest memory of the residence was the camaraderie and closeness of the staff.
“We had to work very hard and very close with one another,” she says. “We started school in September and within three weeks we were following nurses on the floor.”
All of the items in the time capsule will be on display at the Aberdeen Hospital Alumni archives located in the basement of the hospital.