Mrs Helen Westley trained as a nurse at the Holy Cross Hospital, Calgary, from 1939 to 1942. Professional opportunities for women at that time were few and, during the Great Depression, a nursing course was the least expensive way to establish a career. After graduation Mrs. Westley worked in Fort MacLeod and Fort McMurray, then as a special nurse for her ill father in Calgary and Toronto. She remained on the 'special nurse' list to work at Fort MacLeod again (during a typhoid epidemic); and during her career, in Claresholm and Crowsnest Pass; in British Columbia in Victoria and New Westminster; and in the North in Whitehorse, YT. She also served as a volunteer with CUSO in a medical mission in Papua-New Guinea for one year. Returning to Southern Alberta, she retired in 1985, after 44 years as a nurse. She became a volunteer again, in the Pincher Creek Hospital, auxiliary care unit and the clinic.