First Aid Nursing Yeomanry; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
In time I got fairly hardened to the stares from passers-by, and it was
no uncommon thing for an absolute stranger to come up and ask, "Have you
lost your leg?" The fact seemed fairly obvious, but still some people
like verbal confirmation of everything. One day in Harrod's, just after
the 1918 push, one florid but obviously sympathetic lady exclaimed,
"Dear me, poor girl, did you lose your leg in the recent push?" It was
then the month of June (some good going to be up on crutches in that
time!) Several staff officers were buying things at the same counter and
turned at her question to hear my reply. "No, not in this _last_ push,"
I said, "but the one just before," and moved on. They appeared to be
considerably amused.
How I loathed crutches! One nightmare in which I often indulged was
that I found, in spite of having lost my leg, I could really walk in
some mysterious way quite well without them. I would set off joyfully,
and then to my horror suddenly discover my plight and fall smack. I woke
to find the nerve had been at its old trick again. Sometimes I was
seized with a panic that when I did get my leg I should not be able to
use it, and worse still, never ride again. That did not bear thinking
of.
I went to the hospital every day for fittings and at last the day
arrived when I walked along holding on to handrails on each side and
watching my "style" in a glass at the end of the room for the purpose.
My excitement knew no bounds! It was a tedious business at first getting
it to fit absolutely without paining and took some time. I could hear
the men practising walking in the adjoining room to the refrain of the
"Broken Doll," the words being:
"I only lost my leg a year ago.
I've got a 'Rowley,' now, I'd have you know.
I soon learnt what pain was, I thought I knew,
But now my poor old leg is black, and red, white and blue!
The fitter said, 'You're walking very well,'
I told him he could take his leg to ----,
But they tell me that some day I'll walk right away,
By George! and with my Rowley too!"
It was at least comforting to know that in time one would!
Half an hour's fitting was enough to make the leg too tender for
anything more that day, and I discovered to my joy that I was quite
well able to drive a small car with one foot. I was lent a sporting
Morgan tri-car which did more to keep up my spirits than anything else.
The side brake was broken and somehow never got repaired, so the one
foot had quite an exciting time. It was anything but safe, but it did
not matter. One day, driving down the Portsmouth Road with a
fellow-sufferer, a policeman waved his arms frantically in front of us.
"What's happened," I asked my friend, "are we supposed to stop?" "I'm
afraid so," he replied, "I should think we've been caught in a trap."
(One gets into bad habits in France!)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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