Bernadette Davidson

August 31, 1922 - May 26, 2022

On August 31, 1922, in an ordinary two-story house in New Haven, CT, a surprise arrived! First, the doctor delivered Agnes Lorraine then Bernadette Therese arrived quite unexpectedly. The tiny twins were bundled together into a padded box and slid behind the stove for warmth. Fraternal twins, they looked and behaved differently right from the start: Lorraine vigorous and loud, Bernadette smaller and quiet. Ther family called them Rainey and Detts

Their sister, Delma, older by 7 years, often helped with their care. Brother Robert was 9 Detts recounted that when Delma got her first job, she bought dresses, green dresses, for her little sisters; a very special gift during the Depression years

By age 17, Detts worked at Acme Wire, making insulated wire. At 20, in a record store, where customers could go into a glass booth to listen to the records before buying. Vinyl records were affordable and it seemed everyone listened to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and others. Detts had those records for many years : the Big Bands (Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller ) and WWII songs. (“How Are Things in Glockamorra?” and” Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B”)

With the start of WWII, Bernadette began her life of caring for others. By age 22, she finished training as an Army LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) stationed at Ft. Oglethorpe, GA, then worked at Lawson General Hospital, Atlanta, GA, in the amputation center, caring for soldiers wounded overseas. At the end of WWII, Detts returned to civilian life and joined the Army Reserve. Till retirement, she worked full-time at Grace-New Haven Hospital as a surgical nurse in the Ear-Nose-Throat Department.

Detts never married and always had many friends, some from childhood till their deaths. She mostly lived with her parents, Robert J. and Mamie Davidson (nee Marie E. Foisie), caring for them as they aged. The family remained in the childhood home till the mid 1950s when they built a new home in New Haven. In the 1980s, parents deceased, Bernadette moved to Florida, eventually settling in Palm Coast near her older sister. She established herself as an active member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church where she participated in prayer circle, Scripture studies and was a member of the Third Order of Lay Carmelites. Devoutly Catholic, she prayed the Rosary daily and attended daily Mass as long as she could. When in her eighties, she brought Rainey and Rainey’s husband, Larry, to Florida, caring for each in turn till their deaths.

Throughout her life, Bernadette practiced a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin. She traveled to many Catholic holy sites, including St. Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal, Canada. Its founder, St. Brother Andre Bessette was a cousin to her mother. She visited the holy sites in Lourdes, France, in Rome, Italy, in Fatima, Portugal and the Holy Land. Detts also made several trips to Medjagoria, Yugoslavia, where the Virgin Mary appeared to local children. Travelers carried medicine for the local clinic.

Bernadette was healthy and active through most of her life, living independently in her own little condo, even driving till just a couple of years ago. Besides a great many cherished friends, she leaves nieces and a nephew and their children to remember and carry on her example. Nieces : Elizabeth (Liz) Hawkins of Everett, WA; Roberta (Bobbie) Reid of Enfield, CT; and nephew: Henry F. (Rick) Schultze of Palm Coast, FL