
By Polly Mazariegos
This is the story about my sister Shirley Glory (nee Wagaman).
Her present position is Chief Radiology Technician at Patterson Army Clinic in New Jersey. The Mommouth Messenger, dated September 10, 2004 did an article on the clinic and mentions that she has over three decades working in this clinic. When she first started working at Patterson it was a hospital. During a government downsizing it was turned into a clinic, and later it was referred to as a triage.
Shirley has worked hard during all these downsizings by doing every kind of x-rays possible, including babies and animals. Her specialty is Mammography, which she earned when she was in the Army. She is the only technician that administers screening Mammograms. She used to have a doctor at Patterson that would read the x-rays but she has retired. Now, with no post doctor, the films are sent to Keller Army Hospital at West Point, NY. to be read and then that information is re-sent to Shirley who sends out the letters to the patients giving them their diagnosis.
If you are not familiar with that paperwork that goes into doing just one x-ray, we would all be more appreciative of the person taking our x-rays.
Back to Shirley, they just received a new type of x-ray equipment that takes an actual digital image that can be read within a short time after the x-ray is taken.
As part of Shirley’s responsibilities, one of them is to maintain the Mammography equipment for the quality standards required to pass federal and state inspections, administered by the Mammography Quality Standards Act and the American College of Radiology, which she passes each and every inspection with flying colors or an A+.
As a person who performs all these duties at a time, Shirley enjoys her work because, as she puts it, “I love taking care of people.” “I see people from all walks of life and it makes me feel good to help them.” This has been Shirley’s life work. She enjoys her work so much that even though she could retire she would not hear of it unless she is forced to retire at the ripe old age of 72.
Just to give you one of many incidents that can happen to Shirley when she first gets to work, one day she walked in to the clinic and saw water running coming from a file closet. Knowing how important and fragile these x-rays are she had to find the source of the water that was leaking into the reception area. She found a broken water pipe in the file room. Running around like a crazy person at 7:30 A.M. she was trying to figure out what could she do, since the water would ruin her irreplaceable files. We all know that water on x-ray films will destroy them and time was of the essence. Shirley found some trash cans and put them under the leaks in the file closet and even had to move a computer and put trash cans on top of the printer so they would not get wet. She ran, not walked, to get someone in authority who could get her help to clean up the mess. You see, at this time of the morning all military personnel are outside doing their PT training and are usually outside until around 10 A.M. She was running down the halls looking for the computer people who could make sure the water did not harm the computer and printer. She was running up the staircase and ran into a General who asked her, ”Why are you running, Shirley”, and she said, “I have a flood in the x-ray room and I need someone who can turn off the water.” The General told her to slow down, he would go with her and assess the situation. In the meantime Shirley got in touch with the computer people who found the computer and printer were okay. The trashcan on top of the computer and printer did the trick.
How about the time that she arrived at work and none of the machines would work. How about the time she arrived at work and she could not get into the building until the military finished their PT. What did she have to do to get in, as patients were already arriving for their appointments? She had to get to the other side of the building to the proper office and, since she always arrived first, requested a key to be authorized for her use. Needless to say, she got her own key.
This is just a sample of the type of problems Shirley faces on a day-to-day basis.
Another situation appeared as she did not have a key to the front door to the clinic. This would happen when the officers had PT first in the morning and do not appear in the clinic until after 10 A.M. She always had to go a long way to get the key to open the clinic as there was a line forming for people who needed to get x-rays. Finally, she went to the proper authority to get herself issued a key to open up at 7:30 A.M. and begin the day.
If Shirley was not a conscientious person about her job and very intelligent by keeping up her license, they would not be able to get x-rays at Patterson Army Hospital of which the x-ray department is a part.
In Shirley’s government career she has held the title of “Employee of the Quarter” and “Employee of the Month.” She basically runs the x-ray lab by herself. Her superior is in another section of the clinic and it is the receptionist (which they had been in need of for many years) and one other x-ray technician who because of her phobias is unable to do many of the x-rays that need to be done. For example, she is afraid of dogs and babies. She feels if something happened to the baby while she was taking the x-ray she would be blamed so she would rather not do them. That just means more work for my sister.
Let’s look at Shirley from a different point of view. I am her sister and now we will tell a few family secrets. Actually, as a sister I can always depend on her. If I am in a difficult situation, Shirley has helped me out financially, even when she did not have much herself. Her desire after retirement is to return to PA where she has family and many friends from her school days here in Gettysburg.
In closing what can I say about my sister. I am looking for a word, and none come to mind, that I can put all of Shirley’s characteristics into. This word is exceptional…she is exceptional in her job and in her few pleasures that comes when she gets with some friends. She is presently awaiting the arrival of another grandchild. She has found much love in the first baby, Ashley, whose parents are Robert and Catherine Savoth. Shirley will be taking time off after the baby arrives to help her daughter and play with her new granddaughter. Yes, they know it will be a girl. However, the baby will be big and will have to be done c-section. That is okay as Ashley also was a c-section. She will be sitting on pins and needles until this baby is born. She has been with her daughter many times as there will only be 10 months between Ashley and the new granddaughter.
Published in U S Legacies Magazine December 2004
- Log in to post comments