Bluecat Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 Gertrude Dyck, a Canadian nurse and midwife who died on Saturday aged 75, was the second western woman to live in Al Ain, a desert town in the United Arab Emirates on the border with Oman. At that time (1962) the city did not exist (it was called "Buraimi Oasis" and there were few permanent buildings apart from the forts), the UAE had not yet been unified (it was a collection of independant emirates called "The Trucial States), and there was no paved road. She joined a married couple of doctors, the Kennedys, also from Canada, at Abu Dhabi Emirate's first hospital, where she was known as "Doctura Latifa" - Doctor Kindness. I was lucky enough to meet her in the UAE, at an Emirates Natural History Group meeting in about 2001, and I have her book "The Oasis" which has amazing photos of what it was like then. http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091019/NATIONAL/710189848She will be very much missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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