Honoring the American Red Cross
I told Jan, just yesterday, how lucky she was
to have a co-blogger who is in her 80s. When
we write about history, I have lived through a lot of it and have personal
experience in anything as far back as 1929. As usual, she just laughed and
said, “Start writing, Mom.”
I just found out that
March Is the American Red Cross month, so I did my usual….some research and
some memories. Most of us know that the
American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton and a group of her
acquaintances. Did you know that Clara
Barton became inspired to form the Red Cross when she traveled to Europe
following the end of the Civil War? There she first heard of the
Swiss-inspired, Red Cross Network. Upon
returning home, she campaigned for an American Red Cross Society (and for the
ratification of the Geneva Convention protecting the war-injured.)
Thus, the American Red Cross came into being.
Clara Barton headed the
Red Cross for 23 years. They did wonderful work during the First World War and
in World War II. In 1945, the Red Cross began its service in Veteran’s
Hospitals, to meet the needs of a growing number of Veteran Administration
Hospitals. They provided many volunteers. One of the groups of hospital
volunteers were the Gray Ladies. To understand the Gray Ladies duties, was to
see them in homey relationships with the lonely patients. When a patient wanted
to talk, they talked with them. They played cards, wrote letters for the
disabled patients, ran errands for them and cheered up men who were homesick in
a hospital far from their families.
My husband’s mother, Jan’s grandmother, was one of
these Gray Ladies. Jan has her gray and white uniform and cap to remind her of
this selfless woman’s giving heart.
After the war, among its
many fine programs, the Red Cross introduced the first nationwide civilian
blood program that now supplies 30% of the blood and blood products in this
county. Later, the Red Cross expanded its role in biomedical research and
entered the new field of human tissue banking and distribution.
In addition, we all know
of their work when disasters strike.
I played a small part for
the Red Cross during the Second World War. I was a teen-ager, and with some of
my friends spent many afternoons after school “rolling” bandages for the Red
Cross war effort. I can’t
remember what led me to volunteer, but I imagine it was because my older
brother was, at that time, an infantry soldier in Germany fighting in the
Battle of the Bulge, who later became a Purple Heart recipient.
By Lois Jamieson
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stories and fun facts about history and holidays? Then you’ll want to read:
