Ellen Hill was born in Miguasha and wanted to grow up to be a doctor. When she broke her leg as a child falling from a ladder, Doctor Allen had looked after her. It took months to heal and many visits from the kind gentleman. She asked him questions about what he did and how he cured people. He was always patient with her and told her that maybe she would grow up to be a nurse. She agreed but in her mind she knew that she would become a doctor and healer.
As a teenager she would go with him on his visits to the sick. She borrowed his books and read everything she could find about medicine. When school was over for the summer, she helped out around his office meeting patients and taking appointments. He finally hired her because he said he needed her to keep the office going. Over time she was helping him deliver babies, tending wounds and telling patients how to take care of their ailments.
When she turned eighteen, her parents wanted her to go to nursing school but she refused. She had spent most of her young life studying medicine and she did not want to waste her time going to school to learn what she already knew.
She told Dr. Allen her plans to be a doctor and he agreed that she would make a good one. She had a gentle understanding nature and a natural ability to heal. Unfortunately there were few women doctors and it would not be easy to get accepted into a college of medicine. Her parents were against it because they said they could not afford to send her to four years of medical school. Nursing only required one year's training.
Ellen had saved enough money working part time with Dr. Allen to pay her first's year's tuition. Without telling her parents she filled out the necessary paperwork and applied to the five colleges. One day when she went to work, Dr. Allen called her into his office and handed her an acceptance letter from the same college he had attended to get his degree. Special arrangements had been made and she would be attending college in the fall for one year. With her years of working in the field of medicine with a doctor from their institution, they had agreed that she would attend school for one year and then work as an apprentice for the three remaining years under the supervision of Dr. Allen. During that time, she would be required to study and write all the pertinent exams required to complete the college course. She would have to attend an intense month of training at the school each year and be able to pass the practical theories of hands on medicine. It would require a lot of hard work but she was determined to be what she knew would make her happy.
Fours years later, Dr. Allen was sharing an office with Dr. Hill.
“One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to
soar." – Helen Keller
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