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Show 277 Richie a lawyer, and the three girls (Olea, Ellis, and Nellie) all became college graduates. Their three alma maters were the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and the University of Utah. In an unattributed article from the D.U.P. files there is an account of two dramatic events from Ellis's medical experience away from home: Besides teaching in her own home, she traveled from Canada to Mexico imparting her knowledge to others in isolated communities. Many harrowing experiences filled her life during those years, for she was the only one skilled in handling emergency cases who was within reach. Once there was a young man whose hand was terribly mutilated in an explosion. She cleansed and bandaged the hand, then stood for hours tenderly and patiently removing the burned powder from his face. Hardly a scar remained and he could use the fingers that remained on his hand. The Latter-day Saint colonies in Mexico were scattered and one especially, Colonia Garcia, was miles up a treacherous dugway through the mountains. One day a man drove up to her home in Juarez: "You are needed in Garcia, for a woman has been in labor twenty-four hours and the baby cannot come. Please come and save their lives. We have a fresh relay team in the canyon to replace the tired ones." Without a moment's hesitation she gathered what extra supplies she might need in the destitute home to which she was going, climbed up on the spring seat of the lumber wagon and said, "I am ready." After a precarious journey she arrived in time to save the mother's life but the baby died before she got there.2 As we have seen in looking at her peers, most of them retired or moved on to other things as they grew older. Not Ellis. The following quotes portray her situation when she was in her eighties. Ellis was still teaching her classes when she was past 80 years old...by that time, however, in the 1930s, her emphasis had turned from midwifery to such nursing as was needed by the strengthening medical profession of the West.3 "I teach classes during the day now that my family have made me give up my practice, and I shall always keep it |