Helen Bidgood, at 87; began nursing career on the European battlefields of WWII
Helen Jean (McCabe) Bidgood cut her nursing teeth in hospitals in the heart of the World War II battlefields of England and Germany, surrounded by wounded and dying soldiers.
Like so many of those returning from war, the longtime Melrose resident did not talk much about her time overseas. Instead, she quietly slipped back into the fold, spending more than five decades as a nurse in various Boston-area hospitals, while raising eight children.
"She had a knowing of whether it had to be the no-nonsense approach or if you had to have a little extra TLC," said her daughter Elizabeth Curnane of Melrose. "She intuitively knew."
Mrs. Bidgood died Nov. 15 at Winchester Hospital. She was 87.
Born in Grand Rapids, Mich., she grew up in Flint, Mich. In January 1944, having already received a nursing degree from St. Mary's School of Nursing in Grand Rapids, Mich., Mrs. Bidgood moved to the Wisconsin base where the 101st General Hospital was forming. As part of the Army Nurse Corps, she became a first lieutenant while serving stateside before being transferred overseas. She came back with several medals and was discharged in 1946.
Eager to become a career nurse, she earned her bachelor's degree in public health at Catholic University in Washington in 1951. While working as a nurse in Washington, she met William J. Bidgood at a military officers' club event. They were married in Michigan, and then he left to serve in the Korean War while she went to live with his parents in Vermont. He returned four months after the birth of their first daughter, and the family moved to the Boston area. They lived in Brookline for a short time before buying a home in Belmont.
As the family expanded, they moved to Hudson, where they lived for 15 years before settling in a large Victorian home in Melrose.
After nearly two decades of raising her family, she returned to nursing, taking a refresher course at Boston College in the late 1970s. She went to work part time at nursing homes and for a nursing agency that rotated her through all the major Boston hospitals.
"She was kind of a no-nonsense girl," her daughter said.
For about a decade, she filled in for Melrose school nurses in the 1980s when they were sick or on maternity leave.
"She could work with all ages," her daughter said.
The Catholic Church and its teachings were also very near and dear to Mrs. Bidgood. She was a by-the-books Confraternity of Christian Doctrine teacher at Church of the Incarnation in Melrose and later at St. Joseph's Church in Malden.
Her nursing abilities often extended beyond the hospital setting, as she was the type to help someone who took a tumble, relatives said.
"If someone was in need, she was very quick to tend to them," her daughter said. "Somebody may fall - she'll go rushing right over to see if they are OK. She was very grounded."
Even when she became an octogenarian, Mrs. Bidgood's vivacious outlook impressed family and friends. At the age of 82, she took a course at the University of Massachusetts at Boston on geriatric nursing, family said.
"I think that she just loved life and wanted to be with her family, and with people in general," her daughter Mary Bidgood-Wilson of Moultonboro, N.H., said. "A day at home was not her idea of a good day."
Many called her "Tweet," a nickname she had acquired in her younger years, which was a shortened form of "Tweetheart."
In addition to her daughters, Mrs. Bidgood leaves six sons, W. John Jr., James B., Peter D., and George M., all of Melrose, Paul F. of Boylston, and Andrew M. of Atkinson, N.H.; her sister, Barbara Thompson of Grand Rapids; 19 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Services have been held. 