Joan Dewinetz didn’t go into nursing for the sheer love of it, and most certainly not for the pay.

Nope, although she’d always planned to take that path, her first venture into the medical world was for far simpler reasons: her mother made her do it.

As the saying goes, a mother knows.

By her third year, Dewinetz was hooked, on the work and the people. Now, 38 years later and embarking on a new chapter of life – retirement – she is still hooked.

“I loved my job. My parents obviously knew it was the best choice for me,” Dewinetz said this week.

Her retirement last month was the end of an era. It marked the first time since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago that no member of the well-known Hogg family worked there.

Dewinetz is the second oldest of four siblings and a younger sister of Surrey-White Rock MLA Gordon Hogg.

Her dad was Dr. Al Hogg, one of the community’s first doctors and a driving force behind the hospital. Its newest extended care unit was renamed in his honour three years ago, and donations in his memory established a legacy fund for the creation of fellowships to entice new doctors here.

Hogg was described as the “epitome of the small-town doctor,” and there’s little doubt at least some of his way with people rubbed off on Dewinetz. Tributes in a book signed by Dewinetz’s co-workers describe her as committed, dedicated, “a hero.”

“Sometimes, there’s just a couple of people in the world that have done some truly nice things, and she’s one of them,” said Lois Cranfield, who job-shared with Dewinetz in the OR and surgical-outpatient units.

“She’s done so much for our department. She knows the bowels of this place – literally.”

She describes herself as solution-oriented and people-centred. As a nurse, she didn’t hesitate to stay late to ensure people had the help they needed. It’s why she was there, after all.

Few people are more honest, more true to themselves than when they are standing in a dressing gown, she noted.

“These people are here for a reason. We should be helping them along as much as possible,” she said.

“It comes back to you in way more than you can ever give.”

Things certainly changed during Dewinetz’s 38 years, from the length of time it takes to have a procedure done, to the technology used to do it, to how long patients stay in hospital after the fact.

Dewinetz said she is “amazed” by advances that enable patients to be conscious during outpatient procedures such as colonoscopies, and yet have no recollection after of what they went through.

Her career also taught her to not fear death. After watching people die, holding their hand as they slip away – many of them, including her father, with apparent control over when the final moment would come – it’s not scary, she said. Rather, it teaches you what is important.

Dewinetz has plans for her retirement. She wants to travel, has 27 boxes of photos and slides to sort, and is committed to doing more for herself now.

She knows she won’t be able to stay away from the hospital for long.

The rules say she has to be gone for at least a month. She plans to apply for casual work within three.