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Description
Recalling some of the best and worst aspects of her deployment, Ms. Simmonds shares a horrific story of what she witnessed during her time in Sarajevo.
Cavell Simmonds
Ms. Cavell Simmonds was born March 1, 1951 in Bishop Falls, Newfoundland. Receiving her degree in nursing, Ms. Simmonds began her career in public hospitals. In 1974, she made the choice to join the military and during her service, she held rank of captain in the role of nurse in-Canada service as well as overseas deployments to Bosnia and Rwanda with the air force branch having responsibility of flight nurse during these overseas missions. Ms. Simmonds retired from the military in 2009 with 35 years service. Stricken with PTSD, she has found support through Soldier On and this year, 2018, she was chosen to be part of Team Canada for the Invictus Games held in Sydney, Australia. To her credit, Ms. Simmonds is the oldest member of Team Canada and successfully obtained a bronze medal in archery and Best Female Competitor in golf. Ms. Simmonds holds great pride for her accomplishments and is proud to be wearing the Canadian Maple leaf again as part of Team Canada Invictus 2018! She now resides in Calgary, Alberta.
Transcript
Interviewer: What about some of the bet aspects there?
Well, again is doing the best that you can. As a nurse I can always feel quite happy if I can make someone comfortable. Help them to a better state of health, relieve some of their discomfort. And even though we don’t speak the same language, you understand.
Interviewer: And recalling some of the worst aspects?
We were there when the rainy season started and, of course, as you know there were a lot of mass graves. The rain would come and wash all that off so we were left with a lot of exposed bodies and they were dumped in there like garbage. They were basically slaughtered. Pregnant women, women with babies on their back.