Loretta Gruver was
born in LaPort, Indiana in 1937. She attended Taylor University,
and Parkview Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in Ft. Wayne,
Indiana, from which she graduated in 1962. After working for nine
months at Parkview Hospital to gain experience, she went to
Scarritt and then Stony Point for orientation for missionary
service. Loretta went to Liberia in February 1964. Loretta was
stationed at Ganta Hospital, where she became the Director of
Nursing Education in November of 1964. She filled that position
until a Liberian was ready to take over from her in 1990.The Civil War began in Liberia in 1990, and in March of that year it became necessary for her to leave Liberia. In January 1991 she returned to Africa, going first to Ivory Coast and then overland to Liberia and Ganta. However, in October of 1992 it became necessary for her to leave again. She went to Ivory Coast and worked with Liberian refugee students, as a school nurse and a teacher in the school.
In June 1993 she came to the United States on leave, and returned to Liberia a year later. In March of 1994 it became necessary for her to return to the States for arthroscopic knee surgery, but she went back to Liberia in June. In September “all hell broke out” (excuse the language, but it was hell!), After waiting for the Guinea border to reopen (it was closed for three weeks) she walked out to Guinea (three miles from Ganta, through a swamp), with four Catholic sisters. Forty thousand Liberians followed them, since the border had reopened. Loretta and the Sisters went to Nzérékoré in Guinea, and stayed for a short time in a Catholic mission there. Eventually Loretta went to the Ivory Coast, and arrived home on September 28, 1994. In 1995 she had a total knee replacement, and in 1996-1997 served as Mission Interpreter in Residence in the South Central Jurisdiction.
In April of 1998 she returned to Liberia, and was able to stay until she retired in 1999. She and her mother arrived at Brooks-Howell Home on October 1. We welcome Loretta, and are sure that she will not have to escape from this home as she so often had to do in the past!