Obituary of Dr. Doris Nelson

Dr. Doris Armilda Nelson of Edmonton, formerly of Camrose, Alberta passed away on Saturday, November 4, 2017 at the age of 91 years. Doris was born at Sunrise on Sunday, July 4, 1926 on the Nelson farm at Blumenhof, Sask. Her Father was ecstatic at the safe birth of a fourth daughter after three sons. Her early years on the farm were poor but happy ones. Everyone had to work hard and Doris was usually assigned to the outdoor duties, which she admitted, she preferred. Her early schooling was at Cedar Hill School, a one-room school house holding a dozen students, more or less. She attained her high school by Sask. Government Correspondence School. She studied Bible school at SLBI in Outlook, Sask. while working as Director of the Sunday School by Mail program situated there. In 1953, she graduated with her RN in Nursing at Moose Jaw General Hospital. She sensed a calling into Missions so attended a Missions training program at LBI in Minneapolis. In 1954, she was commissioned, along with her sister Grace as Missionaries under the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada -Doris to South Africa and Grace to Japan. Doris served two terms in Africa. The first term was mainly at Hlabisa Hospital, where she taught nursing and served as Matron. On her first furlough in 1961, she studied toward her B.Sc.N at U of S in Saskatoon. Upon return to Africa, she was assigned to be Matron in charge of the hospital at Ntunjambili, Natal, where she wore many hats, including building contractor, nursing director, mid-wife and Dr. substitute. As she neared time for her second furlough, a doctor in Natal suggested that she go home and study Medicine so that she would have the "authority to go along with the responsibility" that was required of her. She took his advice and applied to the U of S again, this time for Medicine. She was not accepted as she was 44 years old and they felt she would have limited time to give back to Medicine. She was pretty sure that this was what she was called to do at this time in her life, so applied again the following year and with the support of the Human Rights Committee, who claimed "discrimination on the basis of age". She won and thus began a new career! She finished Medical school in 1977 at the age of 50 and spent part of her senior year in Norway and Sweden studying Obstetrics and the Health Care system in Norway. She returned to do internship in Saskatoon and Camrose, at St. Mary`s Hospital and the Smith Clinic, where she stayed on in family practice. Having a midwifery certificate made her very popular with pregnant young Moms and though she loved this part of her family practice, she found the nights involved were getting harder as she aged. She moved to Edmonton in 1983 to practice at Mill Creek walk-in-clinic on 82nd Ave. She was hit with an illness in 1985 and required surgery for an Acoustic Neuroma losing 40% of her left ear hearing and was off work for one year. When she returned, it was to do Locums, in Airdrie and Grande Prairie, where she remained until retirement. She was needed there to help care for Grandma Nelson in long-term care. Doris lived a lot of life after retirement! Assisting nieces & nephews with College assignments, attending school events and travelling. Since the Begalkes lived with her in Saskatoon, Camrose and Grande Prairie, she became Grandma to Tim, Tonia, Jeremy and J.J. and now great grandma to their children as well as to those living elsewhere. For a single lady, she has a lot of children! She is loved by many and she leaves a BIG hole. Rest in Peace, faithful servant, sister, aunt, cousin and friend! Left to cherish her memory are her siblings Mildred Lindquist of Surrey, B.C., Grace Ingulrud of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Joyce Christenson of Edmonton, Ruby (Ray) Timms of Edmonton, and RoseAline (Rev. M. Vernon) Begalke of Grand Prairie. She was predeceased by brothers James, Ralph and infant brother Oscar; sisters Inez Tweed and Ruby Olivia Nelson. A Funeral Service was held at 1:00 pm on Saturday, November 11, 2017 from the Messiah Lutheran Church with Bev Swanson officiating. Inurnment will take place at a later date. If family and friends so desire, memorial contributions are gratefully accepted to the Cedar Hill Cemetery c/o South Sask Community Foundation (3934 Gordon Road, Regina, Sk. S4S 6Y3) or to the LCBI Lutheran Collegiate Bible Institute (Box 459, Outlook, Sk. S0L 2N0)