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
The night after these fifteen arrived another contingent appeared at
1:15 A.M. in the pouring rain! This time I had known it about three
hours, but at that time of night there was very little I could do to
make preparation, for I simply insisted that my poor tired nurses should
not be disturbed. I lay on my bed part of the evening, but as a nurse
was sick and I had to get Major Fischel for her, it was not for long.
When they arrived, weary and miserable, I fed them hot soup, made from
bouillon cubes that some kind person had sent us, and gave them bread
and cheese and jam, and then put them to bed in the night nurses’ beds
in their separate huts. They could not even have a wash, but they said
they did not care, all they wanted was sleep.
These poor souls had been ordered to leave their Unit that morning with
a couple of hours’ notice only and were sent off in several different
directions, fifteen to us here and fifteen to the Cleveland hospital up
the road and somewhere else. Naturally they are the homesickest, bluest
group of nurses you ever saw. You can just imagine how we would feel if
we were suddenly ordered to scatter. The reason for their scattering is
pretty obvious to us here, but I cannot write about it. These nurses are
a real help, for they have been in a busy British hospital as long as we
have and they are all experienced, well-trained nurses. But how they are
all hating us at present. For my ways are not their Matron’s ways and
everything about this hospital is far inferior to theirs. I have seen
their hospital and they are right in lots of ways. Their former quarters
were far superior to ours, and of course all these last comers are
having only make-shift quarters. We have erected three marquees for
them, but they are pretty dreary. They have no lights but lanterns as
yet, and their luggage has just come and some of it has been lost, and
it rains, and you can see the picture. They will settle down pretty
soon, and my people are being as kind as they can be to them and are
trying not to mind their grumbling. I tell them they would grumble worse
if the positions were reversed, or I don’t know anything about them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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