A CITY nurse, who dedicated her life to helping others, has died at the age of 81.
MARION Sparrow, whose nursing career spanned five decades, passed away on October 30 following a two-year battle with cancer.
Born in Abbeyhill in on January 19, 1927, she taught at Abbeyhill Primary School and Broughton Secondary School and atten
ded Holyrood Abbey Church, London Road.
Along with her three sisters, Mrs Sparrow was raised by her mother Peggy in Abbeyhill, while father Philip worked as a tram conductor. She left school at the age of 14 to take up a position within the tailoring department of Euan Douglas Woolen Mill in Craigentinny, making uniforms for Second World War soldiers.
Mrs Sparrow joined the Womens' Auxiliary Air Force in 1945 and, after training in the UK, served as a nursing assistant for four years in a military hospital in Germany.
Her dedication to helping those in need has been praised by husband, Kenneth Sparrow.
He said: "Marion was a very dedicated nurse always prepared to help those who needed help, whether she was on or off duty. From the age of 18, nursing was her life.
"Throughout her career she was well-liked by staff and patients alike. She had an interest in becoming a para-nurse and did her basic training in the UK. She was very disappointed when the War Office decided against women jumping from aircraft and so ended her career as a para-nurse."
On leaving the service in 1949, she enrolled as a student nurse at Paddington General Hospital in London.
It was at a police dance in London in 1953, the then Marion Orr would meet her husband Kenneth Sparrow.
Two weeks after the couple met, Mr Sparrow, then a probationer policeman with the London Metropolitan Force, proposed and the pair were married just 18 months later in September 1954.
It was also in 1954 that Mrs Sparrow qualified as a state registered nurse.
Mrs Sparrow continued in private nursing until 1962 when her husband retired from the police force due to ill health and the couple returned to Mrs Sparrow's home city of Edinburgh, living just round the corner from where she grew up in Abbeyhill.
In 1963, Mrs Sparrow took up the post of staff nurse in the eye wards of the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and later moved to the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion.
Despite going through hip-joint replacements in the 1980s she continued working. Mr Sparrow added: "In the old days they didn't have all the equipment for lifting patients and over the years it did her hips in. She had two hip replacements but she was determined to keep going. Nursing was her life."
She was given lighter duties and took the opportunity to pass on her decades of experience to student nurses.
Mrs Sparrow finally retired in 1992 after 28 years at the Eye Pavilion and a total of 42 years in general nursing.
Following her retirement, the couple developed a love for travel, including spending time in New Zealand visiting Mrs Sparrow's sister, and she was able to spend more time on her passion for books.
Mrs Sparrow passed away, aged 81, at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Edinburgh on October 30, following a long battle with cancer.
The full article contains 557 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
