Veterans Day is a joyous time at Coburg Village. We are lucky to not only have so many veterans living with us but to also have a fun and celebratory community here to help us put on a great Veterans’ event each year.
One of our residents recognized this year is Dina McGibbon. Originally from Bronx, NY, Dina’s family moved around before settling in Athens, NY where Dina graduated high school in 1959 and then attended nursing school. As a child, she loved reading about travel and adventure and was a self-proclaimed romantic. She wanted to be like her dad and become a chief warrant officer for the National Guard. The Army had a program where they would cover the student’s tuition and pay them to go to nursing school and join the Army as a nurse after graduation.
“My father was so excited at the possibility he’d have an army nurse in the family, but my mother was very upset. I think the roof is still settling! Because it upset my mother so much, I didn’t do it.” Dina came from a traditional Italian family, and the expectation at the time was for women to stay home with their parents until they married, then go with their husband and take care of their own family. They generally didn’t do much else.
“I knew I wanted to do more than that,” Dina says. “I knew I could be that, but I wanted to be something else. I wanted to be me and be in control of my own life.” So, after nursing school, she worked at the VA in Albany. When a friend mentioned she was going to join the Air Force, Dina decided to join her. “I just needed to be on my own and responsible, stand on my own two feet.”
Eventually, at 27 years old, Dina ended up stationed at a fighter training base in Arizona. She felt like she was where God wanted her to be. She met many wonderful people there and realized how the military became a family. Assigned to take care of the men coming back from Vietnam, she met many pilots and their families from all around the world who would come to the base for training in the ideal flying weather. Growing up, her family of five couldn’t afford to go out to eat often, but here, she was having fancy meals all the time. She got to try so many new things!
She loved her new, exciting social life, but Dina wasn’t one to just sit by and passively take orders. “I follow rules when they make sense,” she says. But when they don’t, she can’t keep her mouth closed, even if it gets her in trouble. She stood up for her rights as a woman and made her place in her military career. She was a natural at organizing and often took control during disaster drills, directing the doctors, creating teams, and making those split-second decisions that nurses are great at. She ordered her patients around as needed to make sure they would recuperate well. It didn’t matter what their rank was because in the hospital she was the general. It was empowering for her to find her place and excel.
She married her boyfriend from home but continued to work for the Air Force. Since she was older than many of the others there, her house often became the place for everyone to hang out for a good homecooked meal and a family atmosphere. After she got pregnant, Dina resigned. “I would have stayed if it was more family-friendly at the time,” she says. “We were very happy with the family feeling there.” She cleared base on the 4th of July.
After returning home, she continued nursing for many years, working in a variety of positions including hospital work, where as a supervisor, she helped rewrite their policy and procedure manual and reorganized their ER department. Later, she went into public health nursing, which provided her with a whole new set of challenges. She cared deeply for all her patients and often donated her time to eat her lunch with them to give them the socialization they needed.
“I love people,” she says. “I think that’s what brought me to Coburg.” She has now been at Coburg Village for almost eight years. “The people and staff here are great,” she says. “Everyone is loving and caring. Coburg is a friendly place.”
