Alumni News

Round-Robin Reunion

63-Year-Old Friendship Bonded by Letters

The year was 1944. World War II was underway. Men and women were fighting for their country in the European and Pacific theaters. Nurses were in high demand. Penicillin was being introduced as a new antibiotic. The University of Iowa was one of the first hospitals to receive penicillin. Nurses were not allowed to give intramuscular injections, so the interns did. Nurses and interns weren't even sure how to pronounce the name of this new antibiotic, so there was a big discussion on which syllable received the accent.

At the University of Iowa School of Nursing in 1944, five young nurses were graduating from their five-year program of study. Roommates Vera and Mavis, Laurie and Grace, and Alice were finishing their last few months of floor duty before seeking jobs. Vera and Laurie were studying the American Journal of Nursing for places of employment offering the highest salaries. They had chosen Ann Arbor, Michigan. Alice had already secretly married her military husband in the last months of her senior year, though the nursing school did not permit its nurses to be married. Prepared to go their independent ways, Alice suggested that the women begin a "round robin" -- a packet of letters circulated throughout the members of the group throughout the year. They asked their former roommates, pharmacist friend Lois and English teacher Dorothy, to join the group.

Sixty-three years later, the round robin continues on its regular course. The packet of letters has proceeded on its rounds, with each woman receiving it from four to six times a year. When the packet arrives, the letters within share news of jobs, marriages, births of children, moves, illness, celebrations, divorce, travels, death, grandchildren, retirement, and great-grandchildren. Each friend eagerly reads the news of all of the others, and then removes her last letter and adds a new update of her own before sending the robin on its way. For many, many years Alice has saved all of her letters -- the letters fill five notebooks.

In retirement several of the women lived in and near Des Moines, and were able to meet monthly for lunch out, followed by dessert at Mavis's. Occasionally Grace from South Dakota and Vera from Milwaukee were able to join them. Four of the robins visited Vera and Marty in Milwaukee, where their infectious spirits and laughter charmed Pastor Marty. Mavis and Lois traveled extensively together, including tours and cruises in various parts of the world.

When Dorothy developed Alzheimer's, her physician husband Rufus faithfully continued to bring her to the robin luncheons. And when Dorothy passed away, Rufus became a full member of the robins in his own right and he continues to meet for lunch with those in the Des Moines area. When Grace died in South Dakota, her husband Myron 'Sig' Sigaty continued to add his letter to the round robin. Later when Sig remarried, his wife Nan acquired the pen and continued the robin tradition from Arizona.

On Friday, June 15, 2007, the women and men, connected by their round-robin friendship, met in Des Moines for lunch at the Living History Farms Machine Shed Restaurant and, as is tradition, dessert at Mavis's -- in the same home Mavis and her husband Dale had purchased in 1948. Coming from Marshalltown, Indianola, Ames, Milwaukee, and South Dakota, the gathered robins included Mavis, Lois, Laurie, Vera, Rufus, Alice, Sig and Nan. Mavis's daughter Ardie said, "Aren't they amazing? They are not 'old' people at all. They are bright, articulate, well-traveled, and opinionated."

The table was decorated with four brightly-colored hibiscus raised by Rufus. The conversation was of straw polls, caucuses, travels, education, immigration, and grandchildren ... and who currently had the robin (Vera).

And when the day was over and everyone departed for home, there were hugs all around.

                                   Written in honor of the Robins

                                                      by

                                              Kris Peterson

                                           (Vera's daughter)

                   And honored to be a guest at the Round-Robin Reunion