Williamson: Tipping my hat to Pink Ladies of Portales

The Pink Ladies of Roosevelt County are feeling, well, a little blue these days.

Over the past couple of weeks, these dedicated volunteers - members of what was officially called the Roosevelt General Hospital Auxiliary, Inc. - have been winding down operations in their gift shops off the lobbies at RGH and Heartland Continuing Care in Portales.

The RGH gift shop locked its doors on Oct. 9.

The Heartland gift shop (inside the Avenue O entrance of the building at 1604 W. 18th St.) will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each day through Friday to sell and/or give away all remaining stock, including "a lot of free clothes," according to Rosalie Patrick, the longtime treasurer of the organization.

Patrick said membership has dwindled to about 14 women, and, sadly, "that's not enough to do the shifts."

A membership roster from 20 years ago shows more than 70 members, but deaths, moves, health issues, and a lack of new volunteers have taken their toll.

Age is also a factor. Patrick is one of the younger members, she confirmed, "and I'm 76!"

Nicknamed the "Pink Ladies" because of their distinctive salmon-colored smocks, the Portales organization was founded in 1963.

It was, by every measure, a simpler time.

Back then, visitors to the "old" Roosevelt General Hospital (which is the Heartland Continuing Care building today), were often greeted by a Pink Lady or two, who would generously share a printed list of every patient in the place, complete with room numbers.

They staffed a bustling gift shop filled with home-baked goodies, flowers, cards, and nick-nacks.

They also walked miles in the hospital hallways. From a rolling cart, they dispensed copies of the Portales News-Tribune, offered magazines and books, and served drinks and snacks to patients and visitors alike.

The Pink Ladies (and very occasionally a man, by the way) returned every penny of profit from the gift shop and regular bake sales to RGH, helping purchase items from computers to wheelchairs, and funding scholarships for students entering medical fields.

They also brought an immense amount of cheer along the way. There is little question that for some patients, the care and compassion shown by the Pink Ladies was every bit as healing as any medications or treatments they were prescribed.

Much about what the organization could (and could not) do changed dramatically with the passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, better known by its acronym, HIPAA.

For starters, Patrick noted, the federal law designed to protect patient health information not only meant no more printed lists of current patients, "It stopped us from going into the rooms."

Despite that, the Pink Ladies maintained the original gift shop at Heartland, and opened the second location when the "new" hospital began seeing patients in 2001.

This week, I tip a grateful hat to the Portales Pink Ladies, past and present, and the thousands of volunteer hours they donated to bring much-needed doses of kindness and goodwill to our community.

Betty Williamson feels positively pink with nostalgia, or maybe blue. Reach her at:

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