Norine M. Begell, a registered nurse in diverse settings, from a surgical intensive care unit to factories, who began studies toward her profession after her youngest entered middle school, died Feb. 22 in memory care at West Park Place senior community. She was 82.

She had Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter, Laura Rood, said.

The longtime West Toledo resident retired at age 70 after 15 years in occupational health nursing, with assignments at the Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg Township and, on occasion, at the Jeep plant in Toledo.

She carried herself with authority throughout her career. The plant workers who came to see her could be assured of one thing.

“She would never send them home,” Ms. Rood said, “and people got mad at her. She was very strict, by the book.”

With her last child in middle school, she returned to school. A niece had begun nursing school, and Mrs. Begell “just figured that would be a good avenue for her,” Ms. Rood said.

She attended what is now Owens Community College and Mercy School of Nursing.  

“She loved it. When she went back to school, it’s like she came alive,” her daughter said.

She received her license as a registered nurse March 30, 1979, according to a state of Ohio online database. Her first long-term position was in the surgical ICU at the recently opened Medical College of Ohio Hospital. Her patients, by definition, needed extra care.

“She met some phenomenal people and did some phenomenal work,” Ms. Rood said. “She was pretty tough. She was very thorough. She was so afraid to make a mistake, because she had seen mistakes being made. She always tried to be perfect.”

Younger colleagues followed her example, though she was as new to the profession as they.

“We always looked up to her as a mother figure,” said Peggy Fitzgerald who worked with Mrs. Bedell in the MCO Hospital surgical ICU. “She was very passionate about her patients, about focusing on taking care of families. She instilled that in us. We were young nurses who were here to learn how to do our job.

“She went through all our weddings and baby showers,” Mrs. Fitzgerald said. “It was probably the best place in the world, because it was like a family.”

She later was a support for the parties and get-togethers among the onetime nursing colleagues — “and keeping all of us really close,” Mrs. Fitzgerald said. 

She was content being by herself and called herself an introvert, her daughter said, “but when she got out with people, she really shined.”

After about a decade in surgical ICU, she worked in the MCO otolaryngology clinic.

“She was coordinator to make sure everything got done for patients — surgery, testing, follow up. It was a big job,” Ms. Rood said. “She was very authoritative. She was going to make sure the job got done.”

She enjoyed the artwork she viewed during her world travels and the works by Van Gogh exhibited at the Toledo Museum of Art. She appreciated ladybugs as a portent of spring and kept her yard in azaleas and tulips and forsythia bushes.

“She knew when the plants came out, spring was right around the corner,” Ms. Rood said.

Norine Mary Hettle was born April 6, 1941, to Mary and Walter Hettle, the youngest of their five children. Her oldest sister, Joan Olnhausen, also was a registered nurse.

She attended the former St. Mary School, played Catholic Youth Organization basketball, and was a graduate of Central Catholic High School. Afterward, she was a telephone operator for Ohio Bell. 

She was formerly married to the late James Begell.

Surviving are her sons, James Begell and John Begell; daughter, Laura Rood; four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at Christ the King Church, where the family will receive guests after 9:30 a.m. She’d been a Christ the King member. Arrangements are by Newcomer Funeral Home, Northwest Chapel.

The family suggests tributes to Sincera Supportive Care, a service of Hospice of Northwest Ohio, or Ohio Living Hospice.

First Published February 29, 2024, 5:00 a.m.