By Ruth Dowds
MANY a tear was shed as Bangor nurse Ruth Magowan marked her retirement last Friday with a lunch attended by colleagues and the families of former patients.
Ruth has been a key member of staff at Seaview House, a private nursing home on Bangor’s Seacliff Road, since joining the staff there on September 30, 1985.
She went on to co-own the home and retires as a much-loved member of the nursing team, held in the highest esteem by colleagues and patients.
Such is her dedication to her patients, that Ruth intends to retain links with the home by working as many shifts as her busy family life allows.
Raised in Newtownards, she began her nursing career on August 26, 1968, as a student nurse at Ards Hospital.
She well remembers the standard of living accommodation for nurses at that time, recalling the ants under her pillow and the cockroaches running about in the shared bathroom.
There was a strict curfew of 10.30pm unless matron gave permission to come home later, says Ruth.
It was during this time that she first worked with Connie Weir who opened Seaview House as a private nursing home with her husband John on September 30, 1985.
The couple had bought the house in July of that year and extensively renovated it from its previous use as a guesthouse for retired people.
Says Ruth: “I came just before their first birthday in 1986 to do a few hours for Connie and then in 1991 I became full-time home manager.”
Over the years she has seen many changes in the care industry, working in the areas of palliative care, respite, physical disabilities, old age and frailty.
The home caters for 22 residents and though it is demanding work, Ruth says she has always enjoyed what she does.
“The house wasn’t purpose built, it’s an old house that was turned into a nursing home and we have kept it very homely, but the challenge is always the geography of the house,” she says.
Ruth adds, “The families are every bit as much a part of Seaview as the residents themselves are and we encourage families to visit and give them a cup of tea if they are here during visiting time.”
The care home industry is highly regulated and as an independent home there is always a lot of work involved in keeping up to date with current legislation.
Ruth’s happiest memories are of the people she has had the privilege of getting to know over the course of her career.
“We’ve met some characters with some stories to tell”
“When it first opened, we had an old captain who had been on the Liverpool boat and he was such a character,” she said. “I’d come down the stairs and find him answering the phone, saying, ‘Hello it’s the home, who do you want?’
“He was 100 when he died and he was still able to walk to the top of the house. Anybody who smoked he would have helped himself to their cigarettes and kept one behind each ear.
“He went to church every Sunday and he was known for putting £5 into the collection and taking four £1 notes back.
“When the new £1 coin came in he wanted change of a £5 note but would he take the coins that I was giving him? He said, ‘No honey, I want paper’. He was just lovely.”
Though loss comes with the job, Ruth admits, ‘there are always ones that affect you more’.
By way of example, she says ‘there wasn’t a dry eye in the house’ the day one of their residents, Charlie, died after 11 years at the home.
“I remember one lady in here 20 years ago who was a real character and I went to her funeral and thought ‘oh my word’ when I heard about her life.
“She was in her 90s when she died and she had gone at 18 in a sports car around Europe.”
Ruth says it is important to recognise that new residents and their families come to the home often feeling very vulnerable.
“They have given up so much to come in here and they have that grief of having given up their own homes. It’s lovely to then see them settling in and being comfortable,” she says.
Last Friday’s retirement lunch followed a retirement party for Ruth that was held at the home on Wednesday, September 3.
It proved to be an emotional experience which was attended by colleagues, residents and the families of past residents, some of whom paid tribute to Ruth in a series of speeches.
