Retired nurse pours herself to her community

Duduza – At 72 years, retired nurse Letta Mvelase continues to be a shining light in her community. She is the manager of the pensioner’s initiative that meets daily at the Duduza Library.

The pensioners exercise and do other activities that help keep them mentally and physically active.

Letta said she was born to serve her community. She worked as a nurse for 39 years and will continue working as long as her body allows.

Growing up she fell in love with teaching and wanted to pursue a career in the field.

“I loved maths and science and could not understand why another learner in my class struggled with these subjects. While in secondary school, my father was diagnosed with diabetes and later lost his eyesight.

“I was concerned about his deteriorating condition to the point that I started researching about it to be better informed of what we were dealing with,” she explained.

She added that reading about chronic illness and understanding the side effects led to her falling in love with the nursing profession.

“I studied nursing and midwifery at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in 1975. At this point, I had enough skills to nurse my father’s condition. I shared some of the knowledge with my family to be able to help him when I was not around,” she added.

While working as a nurse, Letta fell in love with human psychology and decided to enrol towards a qualification in psychology and psychiatric nursing in 1985.

“This was after working for Esidimeni Hospital for two years. I was intrigued by how patients were born being mentally stable and one day be diagnosed with a mental disorder,” she added.

Letta said working in the psychiatric hospital was fulfilling for her and felt that she had done justice to serve the country. Helping the patients to be independent was fulfilling.

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