Garden Dedication

We begin to tell the stories…

September 4, 2024
MacDougal Park, Rockland

“Mere change is not growth.
Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity,
And where there is no continuity, there is no growth.”
CS Lewis

RDNA thanks the City of Rockland for joining us in establishing this memorial garden. We owe a debt of gratitude to our friends who helped make this garden and these memorials a reality. We appreciate our neighbors who daily thank us for the garden, walk through the garden and enjoy it, and stop to share how fondly they remember their nurse, Eliza Steele ~ recognizing her legacy and importance to this community, and the importance of community nursing and RDNA.

The Eliza Steele Memorial garden is dedicated to all who care for this precious community, and to those who shepherd the Rockland District Nursing Association. Together we have been through the Great Depression and Recession, a World War, as well as numerous local infectious disease outbreaks including Covid. We remember, we see and we cherish you. We honor your steadfast commitment and tenacity. As those who have gone before us have shown, we seek continuity within an incredibly changing world, and enduring, sustainable growth towards the future.

Legacy maple dedicated in memory of RDNA’s founding nurse, Eliza J Steele, RN, who served with RDNA from 1929 to her retirement in 1969
Donor – RDNA of today

Eliza Steele grew up in St George. After nursing school, she worked as the Rockland Red Cross public health nurse. In 1929, the Red Cross gave up this public health unit. Eliza rallied civic and community leaders, together forming RDNA ~ a unique partnership that continues to this day.
For 40 years, Miss Steele, as she was fondly known, was for many the face of health care ~ during routine visits to the home, at wellness and vaccination clinics, as the school nurse. Physicians relied heavily on her nursing and diagnostic skills. She assisted with adoptions, packed toys for children at Christmas, and taught classes in child care to Candy Stripers at Knox Hospital. Eliza Steele is remembered as one of Rockland’s most remarkable and dedicated citizens. The community was truly her family, and the well-being of all her purpose.

Bench in memory of Margaret E. Torfason, RN ~ dedicated to RDNA of yesterday
Donor – Owls Head Garden Club

The RDNA workload was too large for one nurse to manage alone. After World War II, Margaret Torfason was working at Knox Hospital, when she was introduced to Eliza Steele. Eliza paid particular attention to how Margaret cared for her patient, proceeding to recruit her for RDNA. Margaret’s nursing experience had included service as an army nurse in the Pacific theater during the war, but no public health or in-home care. Undeterred, Margaret Torfason joined the agency and in short order was making visits on her own. The two became a well-oiled nursing team, with Margaret succeeding Eliza as the lead nurse for the agency. Together they witnessed all manner of living situations in our community, including incredible poverty and often working under challenging conditions in the home. Margaret Torfason was the steady hand who cared for all with warm compassion and kindness, and to this day is affectionately remembered by RDNA as “Torfi.”

Bench in memory of Nancy K. Lewis, RN ~ dedicated to RDNA of today
Donors – her children, Mark Lewis, Tracey Morrill, Todd Lewis, Renee Heal and Susan Lewis Baines

Nursing today in many ways looks nothing like the nursing of Eliza Steele and Margaret Torfason’s day, yet much does indeed remain the same. For decades, Nancy Lewis held nursing leadership roles in the area – first at Knox Hospital and later PenBay Medical Center. In 2007, she joined the RDNA Board as the Nursing Committee Chair, and working closely with our first Clinical Care Director, Carol Melquist, and with me, together renewed and realigned the agency toward 21st century standards, while carefully preserving the long-standing mission and vision. Many RDNA nurses worked with Nancy over the course of their careers. Much of RDNA’s current nursing success is directly attributable to her wealth of knowledge, astute insight, professional integrity and love of community nursing. Nancy reached out to her neighbors seeking to make sure everyone who needed healthcare was included, and no one was left without. At home, there was always room for one more at Nancy’s table.

Bench in memory of Fred & Inez Harden
Donors ~ Brian Harden & the Estate of Warren Bodine

The success of RDNA is as much dependent on the governance and leadership volunteers and staff, as on the nurses. In the wake of the Rockland Community Chest collapsing in 1940, civic leaders joined together to incorporate the Rockland District Nursing Association. As was customary, men served on the Board, while female team workers of the association’s women’s division campaigned door to door for donations. Two pillars of the community leading this effort were Fred and Inez Harden. Both children of Rockland, they met in their youth at the Rockland Congregational Church. Fred, an accountant, and Inez, later a bookkeeper, went on to work together in the same office on Main Street for nearly 30 years. For decades, they tirelessly and fearlessly advocated for RDNA, for Eliza Steele and for Rockland. They brought friends, family and neighbors into the fold, building the community base that RDNA continues to rely on to this day.

Bench as a place of respite for caregivers – dedicated in memory of Pauline Archer & Eleanor Curran
Donors ~ Dean & Deirdre Felton

Caring for each other reaches beyond nursing visits. Through the decades, RDNA has witnessed and been repeatedly moved by the beauty and challenges of caregiving ~ the weariness and desire for a moment’s peace. Pauline Archer was sophisticated and gracious ~ a prodigious fundraiser for local hospitals in her Ohio community. For decades she taught phys ed, particularly focusing on creatively encouraging her young female students. Eleanor Curran was fiercely independent. She grew up in a small town in New Jersey, and studied mathematics at college. During World War II, at the age of 23, she took over the reins of a rehabilitation center for injured merchant marines. While these women came from different worlds, they shared a deeply held common belief in helping, caring for and nurturing others – a belief they share further with us through their children, Dean and Deirdre Felton ~ two of RDNA’s caretakers today.

Memorial Plaque for Warren Bodine
Donors ~ Brian Harden & the Estate of Warren Bodine

Community is the essence of RDNA, and our friends are the backbone. Warren Bodine was a distinguished resident, who settled here after returning from duty in Vietnam. He purchased the local book shop, the Reading Corner, which for over 40 years remained a downtown fixture, a beloved place to find treasures and explore new worlds. Warren served on numerous municipal boards and committees. For 15 years, Warren and RDNA’s first Agency Director sat together on the Rockland Planning Board. When not engrossed in the City’s business, they would discuss the breadth and needs of Rockland, the changing landscape, and RDNA. Civic service builds special bonds and unique connections. While often not highlighted, these community friendships inform, rejuvenate and restore. They are often quiet and unassuming, uniquely sustaining and very much treasured.

It is up to each of us to remember the Eliza Steeles, Margaret Torfasons, Nancy Lewises, Fred and Inez Hardens, Pauline Archers, Eleanor Currans, and Warren Bodines among us ~ now and into the future. This garden is a true labor of love, and it is our fervent wish that these flowers, shrubs and trees guide each of us in continuing, changing and growing. We ask you to take these stories with you, and when visiting the garden ~ pause and remember. These stories not only inform local district nursing, they are very much a part of who we are as a community.