Medicine, Military; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
Among my letters was one of introduction
to the director of a large hospital in the Rue
de la Chaise. This hospital was supported by
funds collected by _La Presse_, a daily journal
of Montreal, and so it was partial to any
Canadian visitors, though it received as patients
only French officers and soldiers. The institution
was doing much good work, all of which
was done by Paris medical men, Dr. Faure,
a well-known surgeon, performing most of the
operations. My reception was cordial, and I
became a regular visitor to its operating
theater during my stay in the city.
On one of my early visits I was watching
Dr. Faure remove some dead bone from an old
wound of the leg, when a tall, distinguished
lady entered. She had donned a sterilized gown
over her street dress, and was apparently a
visitor like myself. Noting that Dr. Faure's
English and my French were both a trifle
labored, she, during my visits, acted as
interpreter for us, her English having the soft
intonation of the educated Britisher. She
informed me that she was neither doctor nor
nurse, but was simply learning something of
nursing in order that she could be of service
to her country in its need, though she had a
little son and daughter of her own to care for.
That was the extent of my knowledge of her,
though I saw that she was treated with
more than ordinary consideration by surgeons,
and nurses, one of the younger surgeons,
by the way, being a stepson of the idolized
Joffre.
The last day I visited the hospital she was
not there, and as I was leaving Paris the
following day I left my card for her with one
of the sisters, with a word of thanks scribbled
upon it for her kindness to a stranger. That
afternoon I went to Cook's to get my railway
tickets, and as I came out of the door this lady
stepped from an automobile to enter Cook's.
Recognizing me, she told me that she had been
at the hospital after I had left, and had been
given my card. She was leaving the following
day for Switzerland for a two weeks' rest; and
hoped that when I returned to Paris I would
call and meet her husband.
"I should be delighted, madam, but I fear
I do not know your name."
"Comtesse (Countess) de Sonlac," she replied.
All the French women were doing their bit.
A very clever, cultured woman-journalist
whom I met at the home of a high Canadian
official in Paris was leaving in a few days to
take a position as _cook_ on an ambulance train
in the north of France!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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