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Through anecdote and example Ellen Beatrice Franke Richter relates her experiences at John Sealy School of Nursing during the World War II years, when the fear of German U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico often required black-outs of the hospital and school on Galveston Island. She describes the first use of penicillin at the hospital and contrasts procedures for using glass, rubber, and metal equipment sterilized in autoclaves with those made possible by the availability of plastics and disposable, single use instruments. Sphygmomanometers and glass thermometers gathered patients' vital signs which were recorded by careful hand printing on Kardex files. But progress is not always synonymous with change. Bea highlights some of the advances in medical practice since she began her nursing career, while emphasizing the importance that care follow in the steps of Florence Nightingale's principle of nursing: careful observation and sensitivity to the patient's needs. Bea observes: The patient waiting in his bed for all the things that are being done to him appreciates the kind and gentle care given by a warm and feeling person who recognizes his needs as a fellow human-being.

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Ellen Beatrice Franke Richter grew up on a ranch near Uvalde, TX during the Great Depression. She is a resident of San Antonio, TX, where she practiced nursing until 1961. Following an Associate's degree from Texas Lutheran Junior College (Seguin, TX), she received her registered nurse training at John Sealy School of Nursing (Galveston, TX) in 1944. She served in the Army Nurse Corps for fourteen months, received a BS degree in Nursing Education from Incarnate Word College (San Antonio) and a Master's degree in Nursing Education and Hospital Administration from Catholic University (Washington D. C.), after which she was Director of Nursing Service at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio. In 1961, Bea changed her profession to public school teaching for a more convenient schedule as she raised her two boys. Her husband, Troy, died in 1969. She retired from teaching in 1982. Bea enjoys writing and has published four books of poetry: Lamentations of a Small Investor, Reflections of a Small Investor, Barney, and The Gathering Place. She collaborated on some genealogy works with her sister, Gertrude Franke, and has published her own, An Ever Widening Circle. She has also written Group Nursing and In Her Steps, related to her nursing career.

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