2023 Bold Beautiful Perfect: Paula

I am an eighty year old woman who has had a very full, beautiful life. I wonder how I can complete the journey!

My life has not been easy. I married young and had four children to raise alone after being abandoned by my young husband. I was always very determined and motivated to take on my responsibilities; it’s just how I was raised. But raising a young family alone was difficult, to say the least. I lacked resources like finances, education, employment, and childcare. However, I was able to pull myself up by my boot straps and found a way.

Hard work, sacrifice, and prayer found me a way to survive and keep my young family together. I had a close friend and neighbor, Betty Smith, who lovingly cared for my children while I worked and attended school. Without her, I would have never made it. I finished high school and became a Licensed Practical nurse before becoming a Registered nurse five years later. I graduated from college with a science degree. Later on when the children were grown, I eared two Masters degrees.

I retired after thirty-five years as a front-line nurse. I loved my career, and retirement enabled me to continue nursing as a volunteer disaster nurse with the American Red Cross. I was able to help those in need in the aftermath of natural disasters, home fires, and accidents. My first assignment was a Shelter Manager/Nurse during hurricane Katrina in Hancock County, Mississippi in 2005. My own home was destroyed in Waveland, Mississippi (which was ground zero). I left the shelter after being relieved by incoming American Red Cross volunteers to go to my property to assess the damage. The whole area along the coast where my home was located looked like a land fill from the hurricane and tornados. I was homeless.

In my search for a place to stay, I came upon a volunteer camp called “I Care Village” set up near the beach on the grounds of Buccaneer State Park. The camp was set up by the Morrel Foundation and housed Katrina volunteers from various organizations and religious groups. These volunteers assisted victims of the storm and the clean -up of their properties. I became the medical nurse and registrar for all volunteers staying at the camp. The camp housed up to 1,000 volunteers after Katrina and was manned by several religious groups. I continued volunteering with the American Red Cross as a Disaster Relief nurse after the storm, clean up, and recovery of my town and my own properties. I was deployed to several national disasters as a Disaster Relief nurse and assisted locally with my local Red Cross unit in Gulfport for fires and disasters.

I enjoyed many activities and clubs in my retirement but nothing was rewarding as volunteering with the American Red Cross. I was active in my church, local garden club, community theatre, background acting, real estate, art, painting and pottery, inn keeping, sailing and travel with my cousin Patrick, and of course, spending time with my children and grandchildren.

Beauty is only skin deep. Real beauty is found in your personality, values, beliefs, and character traits of goodness, kindness and compassion. It’s having a full, active life and helping others. Feeling good about who you are brings an inner glow that no beauty product can achieve.