Last week we left Betty Craig of Castle Douglas in 1969 at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow, where she had just completed two years of training and qualified as a state enrolled nurse.
Springburn-born Betty had left Albert Senior Secondary at 16 and worked in an insurance brokers before joining the nursing profession.
Dad and mum, Andy and Betty Stirling, had four children, of whom she was the eldest.
Always a child with a vivid imagination, Betty had a talent for writing – but seeing her work in print was still half a century away as she concentrated on the job in hand, nursing people back to health.
After qualifying she worked on a medical paediatric ward for six months.
Nursing was a challenging and varied job, she tells me, with duties including everything from diagnosing coeliac disease to giving oxygen to young children with respiratory complaints.
“The patients ranged from babies to children of 12 or 13,” Betty recalls.
“There was a boys’ ward, a girls’ ward and one for the babies.
“The toddlers’ ward was great fun.
“You would get the wee ones up in the morning and feed them which was always a gloriously messy experience.
“Some of them could lead you a merry dance!
“A part of the unit was used for barrier nursing where strict infection control was in place.
“There were kids with respiratory problems and a whole range of other conditions.
“The children would be in a bubble and strict procedures would be in place for entering and leaving the ward.
“I loved the work with the sick children. It was demanding but very rewarding too.”
Betty had barely started her nursing career, I learn, when another “patient” needing TLC arrived on the scene – her husband-to-be Tom Craig.
The young couple hit it off from the start – and their new found relationship would soon bring them to Galloway.
“Tom was an engineering apprentice with Rolls Royce at Hillington,” Betty tells me, smiling at the memory.
“I met him when I went with a friend to his house and she was taking a message to his mum from her mum.
“Tom was from Balornock in Glasgow and I was 17 when we got together.
“We got engaged when I was 18 and a half and were married at Springburn Church in 1970.
“I was 20 and we came straight from Glasgow to Castle Douglas.
“My husband had finished his training and I had finished mine.
“My father-in-law Jim McElroy owned a few flats on Burnside Building and offered us one of them.
“Tom’s mum Ellen McIlroy lived in Castle Douglas and we used to come down here often.
“Tom got a job at Stelrad’s radiator factory in Dalbeattie and I worked for a wee while in Jim’s printing shop on Carlingwark Street while I was looking around for a nursing job.
“It was mainly brochures and pamphlets and the pages were type set in the traditional way using old solid lead letters.
“Once they were printed the pages would be laid out on a circular table.
“You would walk round and pick up the pages, placing one on top of the other in order, until you had the whole pamphlet.
“They would then go to the stitching machine to be finished.
“I was only there for a few months but I enjoyed the change of working in totally different surroundings.
“Eight or nine people would have been employed there.”
After her brief stint in the printworks, Betty worked at Carlingwark House nursing home for a year.
She then left to take on a more demanding role – that of a mother – before devoting her talents to the local NHS.
“My first baby was coming along and so I had a few years out,” Betty says.
“Then in 1977 I went to work at Castle Douglas Hospital which was a busy wee place.
“Training was at the infirmary and the nursing school at the Crichton.
“Changes were taking place in nursing but they were all evidence-based which was very reassuring.”
Betty was in nursing long enough to see the profession move with the times, as ways to speed patients’ recovery from illness or surgery became better understood.
“Going back to the early days during my initial training at Stobhill, people who had suffered a heart attack would be bed nursed for some considerable time,” she explains.
“Next they would be allowed to sit up and dangle their legs over the side of the bed.
“After that they could sit up for a few days and only then would they start to walk about.
“It was a very long process and one very much orientated towards resting following the attack.
“But as time went on, because of scientific progress, we were able to understand a patient’s condition after a heart attack much better at every stage of their recovery.
“That meant rehab and treatment could be tailored accordingly to get that patient back to a normal life.
“During my time at Castle Douglas the hospital had a gynaecology theatre, a gynaecology ward, a small accident and emergency unit, a geriatric ward and a rehabilitation unit.
“Part of the hospital was a thriving day hospital and we did palliative care as well.
“Working there was really nice because of the size of it.
“Being small I felt it was such a boon to the town.
“People could pop in and visit their relatives any time without travelling a distance which was especially important for the elderly patients.
“The place was a big asset to Castle Douglas.”
On top of her nursing work Betty, supported by husband Tom, signed up for the local scheme helping children affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
“We got involved in this project which brought Belorussian children to the UK for a holiday in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster,”
she recalls.
“The children’s health was boosted by bringing them away from contamination and from family difficulties following the ecological effects.
“We had two Belorussian girls aged around 12, for two separate visits, different children each time.
“They stayed with their host families for four weeks or so, and gained lots of benefits from their time here in Galloway.
“There was tremendous local support from organisations and businesses and it was lovely to see the children becoming stronger during their stay.
“It was a very rewarding thing to do.
“The children’s health was boosted by coming to the fresh air of Galloway,
“There were trips and social events for them, with local organisations and shops
also joining in to help the project.
“Fresh fruit, which the kids much enjoyed, was donated plentifully to boost the children’s health.
“We learned such a lot from doing this and our whole family became involved in helping with the girls.”
Betty also reveals another side to her healing, one of Oriental origin, which followed on from her work in practicing and teaching meditation.
“After meditation, my interest in other holistic therapies grew and I learned reiki therapy up to master level,” Betty says.
“In 2003 I went over to Japan for four weeks to take an intensive course in the traditional Japanese methods, visiting Tokyo and Kyoto.
“Working around my nursing shift rota, I opened a small practice at home and began to see clients.
“I also got interested in Indian head massage and went to train in London.
“Eventually I embarked on teaching both reiki and Indian head massage here in Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Edinburgh and in some English cities.”
Betty tells me the hour-long reiki sessions involved placing hands on the fully clothed body, in a series of specific positions, to bring benefits to body, mind and spirit.
Traditional Indian head massage, she explains, focuses on the scalp, neck, arms, back and face and is likewise designed to help restore peace and equilibrium to people’s lives.
“I retired from therapy work at the same time as I retired from nursing in 2009,” says Betty.
“I did a total of 35 years in Glasgow and Castle Douglas.”
It was only following her retirement that Betty properly got into writing.
“I have always liked to write, but a busy working life didn’t leave much time for it,” she laughs.
“My writing would always be on the back burner and very limited.
“I would only be doing daft and funny retirement poems for somebody’s leaving do.
“But now I’m enjoying having time to write again and enjoy being part of the Stewartry Writer’s Group and the U3A Creative Writing Group.
“Poetry is my first love, but I also enjoy writing short stories.
“I have been lucky enough to have two poems published, one for a book called The Great Scottish Canvas which was a collection of Scottish art and literature sponsored and by the World Wildlife Fund.
“The book was used at the COP 26 event in Glasgow to stimulate discussion and the content of the book was also used as an exhibition at the Glasgow Science Centre.
“The other poem featured in a book called Scotland’s Stories from the Scottish Book Trust, to celebrate Book Week Scotland 2022.”
This year Betty is thrilled to be taking part in Kirkcudbright Book Week, a new literary festival in the town.
“It runs from February 27th to March 4th,” she says.
“I will be joining some writer friends to do readings in Kirkcudbright Galleries on Tuesday, 28th March, at 11am, in an event called A Meeting of Minds.
“It’s a collaboration of works from The Stewartry Writers, The Gallery Writers and Kirkcudbright Poetry Group.
“There will be readings from members of all the groups.
“I’m really looking forward to it.
“And apart from writing, I enjoy dabbling in painting, singing with The Catstrand Singers Choir, and playing the ukulele which has led to a lot of fun and new friendships over the years!”
It’s clear Betty takes a great deal of joy from being creative – which fits with her own philosophy of a healthy mind equals a healthy body.
“I find the writing keeps the grey matter jumping and up and down a bit in retirement,” she smiles.
“In the Stewartry Writers, we take it in turns to provide a ‘prompt’ which could be writing a piece about a piece of music you’ve listened to, a piece of artwork or a vivid memory – anything in fact.
“You write up your piece and put it on the blog where you can read all the various contributions.
“Then at the next meeting they are discussed and, if there’s time, everyone can read them out as well.
“I would encourage everybody to take up writing.
“It certainly keeps the brain working and makes you think out of the box sometimes!”
