Shirley's Work Life

Shirley worked her first job at a parking garage in downtown Grand Rapids. Her boss was good to her and sometimes gave her a ride home so she didn’t have to take the bus in the dark. The 'new' Wurzburg's of 1951 was a collection of several older buildings,as well as a "Parking Pavilion" across Ottawa Avenue NW. She found out from her sister-in-law Ceil, a surgical nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan that an x-ray course was being offered. She was one of three students accepted. When the three students took their final exam, (probably downtown at Ferguson Hospital), all three of them flunked. Shirley was the only one who retook the exam and she passed and continued at St. Mary’s. Shirley was nervous and said she “shivered” around Dr. Benson, who would stop to grill them on how many bones in a part of the body or the name of a bone.She also remembers his kindness in letting her go for a week to Pennsylvania when her cousin Eileen Schlosser married Ted Marchibroda, a quarterback in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals who was later a coach for the Baltimore Colts and Indianapolis Colts. At one point he told her to come in at 9am instead of 8am because she was tired since she still worked at the parking garage. Dr Benson also gave the students meal punch cards when he discovered fellow student MaryJane from Mount Pleasant who lived in an apartment downtown, was bringing mayonnaise sandwiches to work. Unlike Shirley who continued to work at the parking garage, Mary Jane wasn’t working. Receiving a meal card was fair though since they were already working as part of their internship. During the time she was at St. Mary’s, Shirley was dating Paul Plasman. Paul and Roy Longwell had a sailboat and met around Lake Michigan since Shirley visited her sister Lorraine and her husband John often at their boat slip on Lake Michigan. Paul was in a serious car accident and Shirley remembers Roy taking her up to see him at the hospital. Sometime after that (and we don’t hear any of the details!), Shirley and Roy were dating, with Paul’s blessing. Paul recovered and went on to marry someone else and started “Bill and Paul’s Sporthaus” with a friend in 1961. Shirley continued to work at St. Mary’s until after she was married and once she discovered she was pregnant. Because there was little in the way of protection from radiation, she often wondered if daughter Paulette’s left undeveloped optic nerve was a result. While gloves and gowns and meters were introduced when Dr. Shay joined the staff, she still remembers carrying a bucket of radium up to surgery when she was pregnant. While the eye nerves develop early in utero, possibly before Shirley knew she was pregnant and quit, first pregnancies and low maternal weight gain are other possibilities among many. A pregnancy related practice at that time according to Shirley was for the expectant mother to limit their weight gain. She would go with a friend for a malted milkshake AFTER her weigh in and complained she was starving during her pregnancy. Her return to work in the early 1970’s was a surprise to everyone. She had not been looking for a job or interviewing. A former co-worker who had remained a friend, recommended her for the x-ray technician job at Alpine Medical Center when he was moving on to another position. Her job necessitated a second car for the family. Daughter Paulette was in high school so the three girls were old enough to stay alone. She worked until eventually the medical practice contracted out their radiology. She remains friends with many of the co-workers from this job and attends their regular luncheon get-togethers. Shirley worked for a few years after that at Michigan Bulb until she retired.