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Daily Info Update
Posted by Faye Bell on July 05, 1998 at 21:06:57:
I have just returned from another date talking at the theater in Brandon, Florida before the movie and had a very interesting conversation with a lady while there. During the intermission, a young lady came up to me and said that her grandmother would like to talk with me a minute. When I walked over to the lady, Wilma Fowler, she begin to tell me a story.
In 1949, as a student nurse at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, she was on duty the night they brought Margaret Mitchell in after the auto accident. In those days, she explained, there were not very many registered nurses and the student nurses took on a lot of responsbilities that are assumed by registered nurses these days. She said Grady was the only hospital that had an ambulance service in those days and all emergencies were brought to Grady, as Grady was the county hospital for both counties. Once it was determined whether or not a patient could pay for his/own expenses, they would then be transfered to another hospital.
She said she and the doctor (she mentioned his name, but I have forgotten it) had to undress Margaret Mitchell while she was unconscious, and she recalls how confused the doctor was about what M.M. was wearing. M.M. was plump in those days and was wearing a chafing guard between her legs so that her legs would not rub and cause a noise when she walked. The doctor said of all the women he had undressed in his life, he had never seen one of those and asked Wilma, "What is that G.D. thing"?!
Wilma also said that David Selznick, after M.M.'s death, sent all the nurses who had assisted M.M. beautiful orchids. Today, she still has the orchids she received from Selznick.
And the most remarkable/surprising thing ... she lives right in Plant City, Florida where I live!! Needless to say, I will be talking with her further.