Finding Themselves: The Letters of an American Amy Chief Nurse in the British Hospital in FranceStimson, Julia C. (Julia Catherine)
History
Finding Themselves: The Letters of an American Amy Chief Nurse in the British Hospital in France
Stimson, Julia C. (Julia Catherine)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
I have not seen a single American nurse so far as I know, and I have not
visited a single hospital and don’t mean to. This morning I went to pay
my respects to the British Matron-in-Chief. She was less formidable than
the last time I saw her and was really quite cordial. She took me to see
General Goodwin, who is to be Director General of the medical forces and
who has recently returned from the States. He was most charming and I
had a delightful talk with him. I was glad of a chance to tell these
British officials how fortunate we think we are to have been sent to
work with the British, and to tell them how we have appreciated all the
innumerable courtesies they have shown us and the way they have helped
us.
E. and I have had lunch down town one day and we have had her
mother-in-law and brother-in-law here to dinner. I have had a splendid
real shampoo for the first time since we left London last June. We have
several pleasant little things planned to do next week, but I like best
just sitting around here on real, soft-cushioned sofas. E.’s two little
boys are darlings. I don’t see them much as most of the time they are
off with “nurse.” Jim is four and a half now and John just two.
You see I am having a wonderful rest. Good night, and loads of love.
Jule.
Rouen, March 14, 1918.
Here I am back with my children, very happy that I am not to return to
the States, and perfectly content to stay here where I know I am needed
and can be of use. The future is on the lap of the gods. If I get orders
to go to Paris, or anywhere else, I will go, leaving these dear people
with the greatest regret. But I have nothing to worry about and can go
about my work with the greatest peace.
We are having a great number of the most pitiful cases these last few
nights; gassed men in terrible condition. Nearly three hundred the last
two nights, and a hundred and fifty due to-night. Major Murphy said that
last night’s convoy was the worst he has seen since we have been here.
Ambulance load after ambulance load of stretcher cases with bandaged
eyes and burning lungs. The men tell awful stories of whole companies
affected so that not a man, an officer, or a doctor is able to do a
thing for anybody else. It seems to be a new kind of gas. At any rate
the effects seem to be different from those we have observed before. The
masks have not seemed to protect the men. We have had so many put on the
Seriously Ill and Dangerously Ill lists to-day, Miss Taylor has been
writing letters to families all day.
March 18, 1918.
Dearest Mother:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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