Photos With Stories, IV



Sister Cavanaugh (Seated) with a Student Nurse
Ormskirk, 1964

When Demetrios was first in Ormskirk, practicing medicine on his first job, a patient came in and said he had received his injury by pole vaulting.

Demetrios, whose English in those days was not proficient, treated the injury and then went and asked one of the nurses, Sister Cavanaugh, what pole vaulting meant.

"It's jumping with a pole," she said.

But he didn't even know what a "pole" was, much less how one jumped with one.

Sister Cavanaugh said it was like a big stick you used for jumping.  Demetrios still had no idea what she meant, and her repeated attempts at explanation all failed.

Finally, she looked around, and in a corner (just out of view of this photo, to the left) found a pole  with a hook on the end used for lowering the shades of those tall windows. 

"This is a pole," she explained.  And with a running start, she pole-vaulted right over the examining table!