Mary Susan Bollinger Barrett married Edward Barrett in 1872. She stayed in a hospital in Switzerland after her son John Henry Meikle's birth and her husband Mr. Barrett's death, and studied to be a nurse for seven years.

She came to America in 1880 after she had accepted the gospel. She went into the home of Robert Meikle as a housekeeper. Robert Meikle's wife had died and left 3 children, Agnes, Martha, and Alice Meikle. She married him after a year or two. After she married him she sent for her son, Henry, in Switzerland.

She was called by the Relief Society to go to the old Deseret Hospital to take training as a nurse. She was always being called out to take care of the sick.

After Robert Meikle died she went to Salt Lake City and took up obstetrics in the Deseret Hospital under Romenia Pratt Penrose. She completed the two-year course in eight months.

She next went to Eureka, Utah, and practiced with Dr. Stoffer and Dr. Fields. She then moved to Smithfield and practiced there for years. She also practiced in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. She then went to Salt Lake City and did some temple work and lived in Salt Lake in the Sara Daft Home 'til her death in February 1924.