"""It must be stressed from the start that I was not a born nurse. Not every girl is. Not every nurse is either, however wholeheartedly she may throw herself into the project once she gets going. Born nurses can be easily recognised. They have a little something the others haven't got which never seems to desert them however desperate the circumstances may become"""Desperate circumstances were something Evelyn Prentis had to get very used to when she began her life as a nurse. It was in 1934 that Evelyn left home for the first time to enroll as a trainee at a busy Nottingham hospital in the...
"""It must be stressed from the start that I was not a born nurse. Not every girl is. Not every nurse is either, however wholeheartedly she may throw ...
"She should never have kept the business going after her husband died. Running a betting shop is no job for a woman. Especially when she's got bad legs." After a short stay at hospital herself, Evelyn Prentis wondered what was in store for her when she returned to work. From the door-slamming Miss Cromwell to Mrs. Silver's shoplifting and Mrs. May coming over all queer, being Matron in charge of the Lodge was rarely straightforward. So when her ladies became unusually united in their grumbling about newest resident, Ivy, the woman who'd kept the betting shop on the High Street, Evelyn was...
"She should never have kept the business going after her husband died. Running a betting shop is no job for a woman. Especially when she's got bad leg...
Not only did the nurses have to cope with stray bombs and influxes of patients from as far away Dunkirk, but there were also RAF men stationed nearby - which caused considerable entertainment and disappointment, and a good number of marriages. This is Evelyn's story.
Not only did the nurses have to cope with stray bombs and influxes of patients from as far away Dunkirk, but there were also RAF men stationed nearby ...
""Matron smiled. It was the smile that one woman gives to another and not the chilly facial movement from Matrons of old. 'Do you think you would be able to work 9 to 3.30?' For a moment I couldn't think at all. There seemed something not quite right in being paid for so little labor.""At the end of the Second World War, as husbands came back to Civvy Street their wives had the luxury of staying at home with the children. For a short while at least. Soon Evelyn realized she had to find part-time work to make ends meet, and to her astonishment she is offered part-time hours at her old...
""Matron smiled. It was the smile that one woman gives to another and not the chilly facial movement from Matrons of old. 'Do you think you would be a...
After working as a nurse for 30 years, Evelyn Prentis left the hospital to become a full-time matron at The Lodge - a home for elderly ladies of reduced circumstances. This is her funny and affectionate memoir of her years - at last
After working as a nurse for 30 years, Evelyn Prentis left the hospital to become a full-time matron at The Lodge - a home for elderly ladies of reduc...