As I reflected on individuals within our church fam-
Aily who have made significant contributions to our church, I immediately thought of Eloise Siskel – one who gives unceasingly of her time, her gifts, and her talents.
Eloise grew up on a farm near the small town of Gosport, Indiana – one of thirteen children. Her childhood was challenging, as her mother died of cancer when Eloise was a child and the family split up to live with various relatives. She attended a one-room school with sixteen other children, grades one through twelve. Her favorite subject in school was geography and, as a child, she dreamed of traveling to far-away places – a dream which came true when she served as a nurse during World War II.
Following her high school graduation, Eloise worked for two years and saved the $ 75 she needed to enroll in the Bloom- ington Hospital School. She said,“ I loved nursing from day one, particularly bedside nursing.” She found surgery fascinating and, because there were no interns, each operation involved a doctor, a scrub nurse, and a circulating nurse. She recalls one day when the surgeon handed her the scalpel and said,“ You make the incision.” Eloise said that she almost dropped the scalpel. The hospital, affiliated with the City Hospital in Indianapolis, provided Eloise with her first experience of racial segregation; blacks and whites were not allowed on the same ward.
To sErVE, To show comPassion, and To BE willing To hElP
By Bette Caldwell
Mid-way through her senior year of nursing school came the announcement of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Nearly two years later, she was accepted into the Air Corps and headed for Basic Training in Greensboro, North Carolina. As a“ country girl” she had never traveled more than fifty miles from home. Basic Training was rugged and unrelated to nursing or medicine. She became a member of the Army Nurse Corps and shipped out in December, 1944 to England, then later to Europe, including France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. When she was stationed in Germany she was responsible for the care of 110 wounded boys and men. Many of the soldiers were hysterical, but there were no sedatives available. Eloise chose to break all rules and sent two of her helpers to the kitchen to get sugar, cocoa, milk, beaters, and spoons. They made hot chocolate and went from bed to bed to have the soldiers mix it. They talked about home, family, and their churches. She said,“ I have never again held so many hands and listened to so many stories. God was certainly with me and my medics.”
After the war ended in 1945, all service personnel remained in the area and traveled to various historical sites, including the German concentration camp at Buchenwald.
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