August 9, 1935 — July 11, 2025
Nursology.net “In Memoriam”
On July 25, 2025, Janet Allan sent me the sad news of Bev’s death – her partner of 45 years.
Bev had been on home hospice/palliative care for about a year and a half dealing with 5/years of Long Covid. The efforts of the hospice nurses greatly helped to mitigate many of her symptoms which were mainly shortness of breath, tachycardia and extreme fatigue. She spent only 3 days in an inpatient Hospice facility . . . and had a very peaceful death. I am both very sad and also relieved because she is no longer suffering. We have been together for over 45 years and it’s hard to imagine a life without her.
Bev and Janet were among the women who”founded” Cassandra: Radical Feminist Nurses Network at the ANA convention in 1982. Their relationship was brand new at the time, and the group of about a dozen nurses gathered in a hotel room to brainstorm what we could do to counter two shocking things happening in and around the convention. First was the fact that over the same weekend of June 30, 1982, women from all over the United States were gathering to mark the death of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. constitution, which simply stated: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”. There was no mention or even a hint at the ANA convention that this was happening – despite the fact that DC was teaming with women and week-end long concerts, events and protests marking the occasion.
The second event that we observed and that shocked us to the core, was the fact that the Maternal-Health section of the ANA had as their keynote speaker Orrin Hatch – Republican Senator from Utah who was a vocal opponent of equal rights, specifically women’s reproductive rights. Several of us watched Mr. Hatch get out of his limosine and be escorted into the hotel, accompanied by a group of nurses representing the ANA.
More detail about this event and details of our gathering and actions are described in the first Cassandra Newsletter . The newsletter contains a poem on page 12 by Bev –
FEMINISM IS DEAD
It’s 1982,, and the ERA is dead.
Well, not dead, says the National Organization for Women.
The ERA has just suffered a small setback, that’s all.
Oh, okay, if that’s all it is.
It’s 1982 and the San Francisco Chronicle said,
Feminism is out among younger women surveyed.
I have never been discriminated against.
Feminists are such unhappy people.
We do not need feminists.
It’s 1982 and long skirts are in.
High heeled shoes, too.
Feminism is out.
Do you understand that, woman?
It’s 1982 and Nightingale is dead.
Has been for 72 years.
We hardly remember her anymore.
Wasn’t she the one who never got married?
Died an invalid.
It’s 1982 and feminism is dead.
But, listen, we don’t have to be nice about it.
Malvina Reynolds said,
The ones that bleed you like to see you nice.
So, you and I, let’s don’t be nice, okay?
We made a plan to meet for our first “gathering” in San Francisco, and Bev volunteered to set up the arrangements with the Women’s Building (which did occur in 1983). Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was not able to participate in the gathering. Sue Dibble, who at the time was a doctoral student at UCSF, stepped in to help. The physicians predicted that Bev’s form of cancer meant about a 5-year survival trajectory. Bev went through a round of the typical chemotherapy ordeal, which she determined she would never engage in again, and instead created her own healing pathway and survived and thrived to the age of 90! She spent many years working closely with people who were living with HIV/AIDS, guiding their experience using the healing approaches she had learned to know during her own healing journey. She documented her journey in her book “Surviving and Thriving After a Life-Threatening Diagnosis“.
So here’s to fond memories of our dear colleague and friend Bev Hall! Her spirit and influence lives on!
NurseManifest 