World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals, charities, etc.; World War, 1914-1918 -- Medical care
Miss Todd took me out in her motor to-day for an hour. We took Daillet,
my star patient, with us. It was a pleasure to see his enjoyment. Doctor
R---- was much surprised at the progress he had made in eight days; he
says there is no doubt but that he will be entirely cured. Daillet
wrote to his mother and told her that he could stand alone and was
beginning to walk, but she did not believe it; she thought that he was
just trying to cheer her up, so he asked me to take a photo of him
standing up so that he could send it to her. He was the proudest,
happiest thing you can imagine when he sent it off. Then his aunt came
to see him, so the poor mother is finally convinced that it is true, and
is coming to see him as soon as the haying is done, but she has to work
in the fields now and cannot get away.
It is wonderful the work that the women do here. There are only two old
horses left in the whole village, so the women harness themselves into
the rakes and waggons and pull them in place of the horses--and they so
seldom complain of the hard work. I asked one woman if she did not find
it very hard, and she said at first it came very difficult but she got
used to it and it was nice to be able to do their part.
We got twenty men from Alsace on Friday--some of them badly wounded.
They did not arrive till half-past eleven at night, and it was three in
the morning before we got the dressings done and got them to bed. It is
the second time that some of them have been wounded. They are all
Chasseurs d' Alpines--they are a splendid type. Some of them had both
legs and both arms wounded. Yesterday we were rather anxious about
several of them, but to-day they are better. They generally sleep about
three days after they arrive, they are so done out.
Mrs. H---- has had to leave to care for a typhoid patient, so my hands
are very full. My English boy is getting trained rapidly; he is only
seventeen and not very strong, too young to go to the war but very keen
to do something to help.
Do not worry about me, I am as well as possible and as strong as a
horse, but as my day begins at half-past five in the morning and ends at
half-past nine at night I fall asleep over my letters.
Thanks for the clippings; I would not have known B---- if the name had
not been there. I do not dare to think of his coming, and yet I would
not be proud of him if he did not want to come. I shall try and get up
to the north later so as to be nearer him when he comes.
Good-night, mother; these are sad times, but we must not lose courage. I
wish I could see you to-night.
August 1, 1915.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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