Lela Mae Thompson

 In honor of Women's History Month I decided this month to write about some of the incredible women ancestors I've discovered in my research. The first up is my great grandaunt Lela Mae Thompson. She was sister to my great grandfather Frank Thompson.

Lela was born November 22, 1894 at her parent's home in Allegan, Michigan. She was the fourth of eight children. When she was 14 she heard a nurse talk about her work in China at church. Lela had always been interested in helping the sick and injured. After hearing this nurse talk, Lela decided that she, too, wanted to be a nurse. When she informed her parents, they were against this idea. They told her that if she wanted to be a nurse, no money would be given to her. She would have to earn it herself.

Lela worked as a nanny caring for the 2 small children of a couple, even moving to Grand Rapids with them when they moved. She also was able to take some classes in High School. She then went to work at the D.A. Blodgett boarding school for children. She helped care for 120 children aged from babies to 15. She worked there long enough to earn the $350 needed for 3 years of nursing school.

On September 22, 1919 she entered the Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan and began nursing school. Her parents were still opposed, and even the family doctor had tried to persuade her not to become a nurse. He did give her these words of advice though: "Since I see that you are determined to take up nursing, which is a wonderful profession, I hope that you will carry with you these ideals: Be courteous, sympathetic, thoughtful and kind with your patients. At all times be calm. Do not look for praise. Be interested in every patient."

Lela lived at the hospital with 2 other roommates. She gained practical experience from working in the hospital and took classes from the Junior College in Grand Rapids. After 3 years she graduated. Circumstances prevented her family from attending her graduation ceremony, but the family she had been a nanny to showed up and clapped for her when she received her diploma. She said she had never felt closer to anyone before.

On November 22, 1922, her birthday, she was appointed Pediatric Supervisor at Butterworth Hospital. She worked there for 3 years before accompanying a friend on a vacation to Orlando, Florida. 

When she came to Orlando, it was in the wintertime. She said she saw the city and the beautiful weather and decided that she didn't want to go back to Michigan. She interviewed for and was offered a job at Orange Memorial Hospital, known today as Orlando Regional Medical Center. She mailed her letter of resignation and only went back to collect her belongings.  She worked at Orange Memorial for the remainder of her nursing career. Her specialty was in the maternity ward where she delivered an estimated 40 thousand of babies. 

In January 1930 Lela married William Stokes but never had any children of her own. She retired from nursing in 1968.

In 1985 funds were raised to name the delivery unit's head nurse's office at the soon to be built Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital after Lela.

Great Aunt Lela appeared on the Fall 2018 cover of "Reflections" the quarterly magazine ;put out by the Historical Society of Central Florida on their issue of Orlando Health 100 years of caring. 

Lela Thompson Stokes is an inspiration.