Florence Polce says she could "fill a big room" with all of her memories.
That's probably an understatement, coming from a woman who this weekend will mark 101 years of life!
Flo, or Aunt Flo as she's affectionately called by two of her closest relatives, niece Anna Hull and Anna's son, Richard, might be a bit uncertain when it comes to remembering specific dates throughout her lifetime, but she can easily relate many, many fond memories and stories, some of the most notable from her time as an Army nurse during World War II.
The youngest of three daughters to Italian born Dominic Polce and his American wife, Anna, Flo and her sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, had a tough childhood. Their mother died when Flo was only four years old.
"I've been a throw-around," says Flo. "After mom's death, father had a hard time getting a housekeeper for us girls. We went to an orphanage in Cresson, then our father's cousin boarded us."
Flo graduated from high school in 1927 and went to nursing school at St. Agnes Hospital in Philadelphia, where she graduated in 1930. For the next several years, she practiced general and private duty nursing and specialized in obstetrics.
In 1935, she became a registered nurse in New Jersey and for the next six years, worked at Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital in Jersey City, N.J., one of the most notable maternity hospitals, with more than 350,000 babies of record born there from its opening in 1931 until it closed in 1979.
When World War II broke out, Flo remembers that times got tough.
"I worked for a dollar or fifty-cents a half day, doing private duty call for the drug stores. We didn't get very many calls people couldn't afford it. It was 'take it when you could get it.' Some worked for board."
Flo also credits her late brother-in-law, Salvatore (the family called him Sal for short, and Flo liked to call him Pal), who was married to her sister, Elizabeth, with providing support.
"Pal took care of me over the years he was a wonderful brother-in-law."
In October of 1942, at the age of 33, Flo enlisted in the Army as a nurse.
"Here was my thought: They needed people. A lot of men had wives and children and they had to leave them. I had none, so I thought I'd go."
She reported for duty at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland and spent the next several months at various locations, including Camp Stoneman in California, Camp Kilmer back in New Jersey, and then to Brooklyn, N.Y., according to her military records, all of which she has saved over the years. She also spent training time in Durban, South Africa.
"We trained from here, to here, to here," says Flo, who wasn't much for the discipline the military demanded.
"They called me Polce-ey (adding another syllable to her single-syllable name). They added the 'ey' to everything and everybody," she says with a laugh. "I didn't like to drill. I thought, 'This is silly. I came to nurse the soldiers, not to drill.' But most everything was for discipline. I'd get out of step on the drills and they'd yell, 'Polce-ey, you're out of step!' And I'd say, 'When we take another step, I'll be back on.'"
"We waited for about 17 days in South Africa for the convoy to take us to Karachi, India," remembers Second Lt. Polce, who spent more than two years of her military service with the 181st General Hospital in India, in what was known as the China-Burma-India Theater during the War. "I was a general duty nurse. I rotated on the various wards and did night duty."
"There were different diseases there, different types of malaria," remembers Flo. "I happened to be rubbing one of the soldiers' backs, one who was waiting to be transported back to the U.S., and another boy said, 'What I wouldn't give for that.' Some of them had beards, so I told them if they came back to the ward with their beard shaved off, I'd give them the best back rub. That young man was like a kid when I came in the next day he was all shaved! So, I gave him a rub."
Disease, predominately malaria as well as typhus, sickened soldiers in greater numbers than did battle in India. The 181st Hospital was a secondary facility, according to Flo. After treatment at hospitals on the front and when they were out of immediate danger, the solders would come to the 181st for additional care and to await transport by air or water.
Flo befriended many of the soldiers. To some, she was like a mother, and to others, a sister.
"There was a young man named Presley. We ordered a cake for his birthday he was like a kid when he saw it," says Flo. "We called him Pressy. He and another kid, Scotty, were like my little boys."
"The Red Cross was good to the boys and to us," adds Flo. "There was a kindness shown to us, to cheer people up. The Red Cross workers would ask the men if they wanted them to purchase souvenirs for their sweethearts and loved ones. Men would describe their wife and the Red Cross would go buy something for them. They'd also write letters for the men, and at Christmastime, they'd get a real tree and trim it."
Flo says the War took its toll on everyone.
"People in our country were pittying those of us who were in foreign countries. I felt we all had it hard; our people in the U.S. were brave to give up all they did food, gas rationing. We all had it hard."
Flo still remembers the kindness from folks back home.
"God bless my friends and relatives for the letters they sent while I was overseas. They were wonderful. Sal's parents sent sausage. It was moldy by the time it got to me. I washed it off, scraped off the mold and ate it.and I'm still here. I loved sausage."
"A girlfriend of mine sent me a bottle of perfume. I put a dab on one day and heard, 'ummm, where'd you get that?' The soldiers really enjoyed that!"
Being from a rural area, Flo says most of the time she was a bit more practical when it came to having to deal with the natural habitat in India.
"The other girls always hollered for Polce-ey when then needed to get rid of a baby mouse, or for me to kill a big, hairy spider. They were from the city and couldn't tolerate those kinds of things. But one day, a native came up and started talking to me. He had a little glass jar and in the bottom of it was a krait (a highly venomous snake). I said, 'Get that thing out of here!' He said it was dead, but I wasn't taking any chances."
Flo remembers a good friend and fellow nurse whose last name was Saylor.
"We all called her Sailor Girl. She wrote to Kodak and they sent her some film for her camera, which is how I ended up with lots of pictures. When others took pictures, they shared, too. I never even had a camera," says Flo, who still treasures several albums filled with photographs of people and places from her time in India.
According to Flo's military records, the 181st General Hospital had an "authorized strength of 56 officers, one warrant officer, 105 nurses, and 500 enlisted men."
"I know we have good, bad and indifferent everywhere, but I served with some good women," says Flo of her fellow nurses. "And I never had a brother, but I believe I felt like a sister to some of those boys. The men were decent."
In addition to her duty at the 181st, Flo worked at several of the "rest camps" in India. These were facilities the United States established to allow soldiers a break from the stress of combat, to refresh their minds and bodies.
"The soldiers would get a week of rest camp," says Flo. "You did everything you could to make life easier for people when they were there. I was at several rest camps. One was in Simla and we loved that one because it was a camp where the barracks had been used by English nurses they called them 'sisters.' We all stayed in concrete-bottom sleeping quarters there after the English had vacated them. That was nice because sometimes it was so hot it was a hot country."
After working under primitive conditions in an extremely trying climate for more than 28 months, Flo came back to the U.S. The trip home, she recalls, was quite an experience.
"We came back by air more than 50 hours of flying and I was air sick pretty much the entire time."
First Lt. Polce (she was promoted but she'll tell you flat out that she didn't care about rank, saying, "I went to take care of our people, not to make a name for myself."), was discharged from the military in 1946 and came back to work in Lock Haven for a while. She then went back to Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital and was there for the next 25 years. Flo supervised the Labor and Delivery Room at the hospital and was responsible for the training of undergraduate and graduate obstetrics students.
Today, Flo lives at the OakRidge Personal Care Home and welcomes visits from family. She will also tell you though, that, at 100-plus years, she's ready to join those loved ones who have gone before her.
"I pray to the Lord to take me so I can be with my mother and father and sisters, but I guess the Lord doesn't want me to go above just yet," says Flo. "I've had an active life even the War didn't take me. I have so many funny stories from those years. People say to me, 'Did you go to fight a battle or make people laugh?' I guess it was a bit of both."
