North Wales’s “Queen of Care” has finally hung up her belt buckle after 53 years as a nurse.
Residents, relatives and colleagues gathered for a sun-baked garden party to mark the retirement of Mildred Heyward, 71, as the manager of the Gwern Alyn Care Home, in Wrexham.
According to Mildred, the last 10 years of her career working for the Pendine Park care organisation were among the happiest of her professional life.
Mildred’s interest in nursing began as a girl growing up in the village of Cefn y Bedd, and she joined the Red Cross, working as a volunteer at Wrexham’s Maelor Hospital.
She then started a pre-training course at Denbighshire Technical College and worked as a cadet at Chester Royal Infirmary and Wrexham’s War Memorial Hospital before completing her training in 1963.
According to Mildred, 1963 was a momentous year because she married her husband Don, who also recently retired from Pendine Park where he drove the minibus.
Mildred has other links with the caring profession, as her daughter Jane Lucy is the lead nurse in the renal unit at the Maelor Hospital, in Wrexham.
Mildred said: “I am very lucky because I have had a wonderful career.
“I enjoyed the way I was trained and brought up in nursing and those values have stood me in good stead.
“I was made head of department for Ear, Nose and Throat and then Opthalmology and ended my time at the Maelor Hospital as Bed Manager for the whole hospital.
“I gained a great deal of experience which I brought when I came to work in social care.
“Working for Pendine Park has been fantastic. I don’t think there is an organisation like them for giving training an opportunities to staff. I think it’s a wonderful organisation to work for.
Among the VIP guests at the retirement party were Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths and the Mayor and Mayoress of Wrexham, Cllr David Bithell and his wife, Virginia.
The AM and Mildred go back a long way as Lesley Griffiths explained: “In 1980 Mildred was the Sister in the eye department and I was a medical secretary.
“In those days I was terrified of her and I would never have called her Mildred but she was known throughout the hospital as being a very caring person who ensured her patients were always extremely well cared for.
“She transferred those skills into the social care sector and she is somebody I admire greatly and count as a real friend.
“I still can’t believe she’s retiring but it’s good to hear that those skills won’t be lost to the sector as she is going to be doing some consultancy work for Pendine Park.
“Anybody entering the profession would aspire to be like Mildred, she is a fantastic role model and a remarkable lady.”
Cllr Bithell added: “Serving other people for 53 years is a remarkable record of service. She has supported not only the residents but their families as well.
“We wish her the very best in her retirement.”
Pendine Park proprietor Mario Kreft MBE reckons Mildred will be a very hard act to follow.
He said: “She is one in a million – a unique Queen of Care who is going to be a great loss to the organisation.
“Thankfully, she will be working in a consultancy role and we have one or two projects lined up for her.
“To devote more than half a century to looking after the public is something very special.
“She is a role model that any nurse should look to. She is held in very high esteem and great affection by colleagues residents and relatives.
“Mildred has the X-Factor that engenders connection and a feeling of trust – and she does really care.”
