For Philadelphia native Mary Hale, MSN, RNC, SRN, SCM, the inspiration to enter nursing hit in a faraway place: East Africa.

Hale joined a missionary organization as an accountant and moved to Uganda in 1965. After almost 5 years of helping a struggling mission hospital get out of debt, Hale heeded a different call.

"I saw bedside nursing, and I yearned to do that rather than the office work I was doing," explained Hale. So she returned to the U.S. to a 3-year nursing program at Philadelphia General Hospital. Then on to England to an 18-month nurse midwifery program.

Signed by Idi Amin

Her passion for Uganda and nursing never waned. In 1974, she eagerly returned to the country and entered into a 5-year contract to work as a nurse midwife there. At the time, the signature on her paperwork meant nothing to her: Idi Amin. But the brutal dictator, most recently portrayed by Forrest Whittaker in The Last King of Scotland, would go on to terrorize the country and kill up to 500,000 of its inhabitants.

"I'd go to bed at night, and I'd hear gunfire," said Hale, who published her autobiography On Uganda's Terms earlier this year. "Nobody knew what it was or where it came from. Everything was censored. You had to be careful what you talked about."

When she watched an Ugandan military officer steal five tons of milk sent from the Save the Children organization for use at Hale's hospital, she was powerless to say anything. At her friend's urging, she eventually stopped wearing her white nurse's uniform and donned traditional African dress to become less of a target.

"If the British were not in favor that day and Amin saw a white person, that person could be killed," said Hale, whose friend's brother was murdered because he was Christian.

Educating Nurses

Despite the oppressive circumstances, Hale helped establish the country's first postgraduate pediatric nursing program. During her stay, 21 nurses were educated there.

In 1979, Hale got into a Land Rover with two friends who feared for her life, and made a run for the Kenyan border. Once in Kenya, the reality of Amin's regime was public knowledge.

"In Nairobi, I saw the Kenyan national newspaper," said Hale. "It told about the corruption in Uganda; black-and-white pictures showed the dead bodies. I actually saw some of our teachers and nurses lying in that pile of dead bodies. It was horrible."

'Dear Lovely' in Philadelphia

As Amin's regime fell later that year, Hale transitioned back to life in Philadelphia and took a position at Albert Einstein Medical Center, where she worked in pediatrics and maternity for the next 27 years. On her days off, she'd dress up as Dear Lovely the Clown and hand out toys she'd bought for children on the unit.

"She never allowed one child to go without a toy on that wing," said Bonnie Kaye, whose son was hospitalized repeatedly due to a rare disease. "Many of the children had no visitors. Mary always spent extra time with them."

Dear Lovely also made appearances at birthday parties and other kids' events across the region, offering public health advice on everything from handwashing to junk food.

Finally Retirement

Her time in Uganda, Hale said, fueled her desire to make a difference in people's lives wherever she was.

Last year, she decided to call it quits and cease clinical work. "I'm worn out, literally worn out," said Hale, who earlier this year was diagnosed with early-stage uterine cancer.

Retirement, so far, has been filled with writing: first, On Uganda's Terms, and then a sequel to be released this summer, Beyond Nurse's Notes. The latter combines her nursing experiences in the U.S. with vignettes from her life in Uganda.

The moniker "Dear Lovely," she recalled, came from one of her many Ugandan suitors. "I could have stayed forever," she said. "But if I wanted to live, I had to leave."

- Jolynn Tumolo