Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910; Nurses -- England -- Biography
One can imagine the flutter of excitement amongst the good simple
deaconesses as they flitted about in their blue cotton gowns, white
aprons, and prim muslin caps when it was known that an English lady
of wealth and position had come to study amongst them. That such a
woman should voluntarily undertake the duties of a hospital nurse,
tending the sick poor with her own delicate hands, was at that time
almost unprecedented. But the “Fraulein Nightingale” was quickly at
home amongst her fellow-nurses and eager to learn all that the more
experienced could teach her. She took both day and night nursing and
entered into all branches of work. Garbed in the simple nurse’s dress
she moved through the wards of the hospital carrying the charm of her
presence from bed to bed, as she was later to do at Scutari. Was there
a difficult case to attend or an operation to be performed, the English
Fraulein was sure to be on the scene.
At this period Miss Nightingale was in the strength and beauty of her
early womanhood. She was tall, slight, and graceful, with abundance
of brown hair neatly arranged on either side her high broad forehead,
and had penetrating grey-blue eyes and a mouth which though firm
indicated a sense of humour. The deaconesses, with whom she could
talk in their own language, found her a diverting companion, for she
had a sharp incisive wit, a certain homely shrewdness of expression,
and a knowledge acquired not only from a superior education, but
from a good experience of foreign travel. Above everything else she
was distinguished by the power of adapting herself to circumstances,
and she settled down to the humble fare and simple routine of life
at Kaiserswerth as easily as though she had never known the refined
luxuries of her father’s house. It is small wonder that the sweet old
faces of the retired deaconesses, living out the last spell of life
in the Kaiserswerth Home of Rest, light up with smiles to-day at the
mention of the “Fraulein Nightingale.” Some can recall her gracious
kindly presence amongst them, and all feel a community of satisfaction
that her honoured name is enrolled among the sisterhood.
Sister Agnes Jones, the devoted and famous nurse of Liverpool, was
at Kaiserswerth in 1860, and records the impression which Miss
Nightingale’s personality had left on the deaconesses. She wrote in
a letter to a friend: “Their love for Miss Nightingale is so great;
she was only a few months there, but they so long to see her again. I
was asking much about her; such a loving and lovely womanly character
hers must be, and so religious. Sister S. told me many of the sick
remembered much of her teaching, and some died happily, blessing her
for having led them to Jesus.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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