Nylund, Mary

Mary was born in 1910 in a coal mining district of Pennsylvania. Mary's mother passed away when she was eleven. Mary managed to save money to be able to enter nursing school and obtained her R. N.

Mary came to New York to visit the 1939 World's Fair, and she found employment at the Nassau County Sanitorium, Old Bethpage. Here she was a full-time surgical and floor nurse where she cared for and treated patients with T. B. She also met her husband, Arnold, there and they married in 1941, and they moved into their home on Farmers Avenue, Bethpage. When the war broke out, Arnold found employment at the Grumman Corp., and worked there for over thirty years.

They had two sons, Carl and George, and they both attended Bethpage Schools. Carl passed away suddenly when he was only 49 years old and left a wife and two teenage children. George and his family live in upstate New York.

After Mary's boys were in school she worked at many different jobs. She was one of the first nurses hired in the newly built Mid-Island Hospital (now New Island Hospital) back in the early fifties. Mary was also employed in the HIP Center and she spent over ten years as a school nurse for the Bethpage School District. She was one of the original members of the newly formed Young At Heart Club at St. Martin of Tours Church. She was presented a plaque acknowledging her as "Charter Member." She held office as secretary, worked the fairs, and put in many hours working in the kitchen preparing coffee and treats.

Mary's memories of her early years in Bethpage were that there were very few homes on Farmers Avenue and across from her home were many acres of farms. Also, since the war was on very few people had a car, so people had to walk to town for everything.

(Information from a Young At Heart Newsletter, 1998 where Mary was highlighted)