Annie Groves - Wartime for the District Nurses

‘What? That Gladys has to get up even earlier than usual to clear out the broken saucepans?’ Edith thought that was a bit much, even for Mary.

Mary shook her head. ‘No, of course not. I know I’m being silly.’ She sighed as she smeared a small amount of butter across the toast. ‘It’s nothing to do with Gladys really. It’s Charles.’

Edith raised her eyebrows in sympathy, even though she sometimes envied Mary for the fact that her boyfriend was still alive and so she really didn’t have much to complain about. However, she liked to hear about what her friend’s beau was doing, partly because he was a captain in the army and generally knew what was going on in the wider world, even if he wasn’t permitted to tell them the half of it. ‘What’s wrong, then? Spill the beans.’

Mary crunched into her toast and took a second slice. It would take more than a minor argument to make her lose her appetite. She finished her mouthful and looked up, her expression changing from annoyed to sad. ‘Well, of course I hardly see him, he’s so busy. Then, when we do manage to find an evening when he’s not on duty, he’s so preoccupied that I sometimes wonder if he hears a word I say.’ She patted one of her curls into place. ‘Yesterday I spent ages doing my hair, wearing my nicest silk blouse and making sure I looked my very best to cheer him up. Boost his morale and all that. But he didn’t even notice. Didn’t say a thing.’

Edith set down her own piece of toast. ‘I expect he did and just didn’t want to mention it,’ she suggested.

‘But I want him to mention it!’ Mary cried, her usually bright blue eyes now filled with irritation. ‘It took me ages, and you know how hard it’s becoming to buy nice makeup and find a way to make your favourite perfume last. I don’t want to let him down when he takes me to lovely restaurants.’

‘Of course,’ said Edith, although her experience of lovely restaurants was nonexistent. Harry used to take her to a local pub, the Duke’s Arms, or one of the nearby cinemas, and that was all they had needed.

‘He keeps going on about the threat of Hitler invading,’ Mary confided. ‘I tell him, he won’t. He wouldn’t dare. Mr Churchill will defend us. That’s what he’s promised to do and I believe him. There’s no need to worry on that score. Charles won’t tell me any details but he looks so tired and drawn, poor lamb. Yesterday he couldn’t even spare the time for a proper meal. We just went to the hotel bar nearest to his office and had a quick supper there. Not that it wasn’t lovely,’ she added loyally.

‘I bet it was,’ said Edith. Mary had been adamant up until the actual outbreak of hostilities that there wasn’t going to be a war, that Mr Chamberlain would stop it. So Edith didn’t have any great faith in her friend’s abilities to predict the future. Yet she could not fault her for steadfastness and optimism, qualities which might be very important in the days to come, if her own worst fears of invasion came true.

‘I’m beginning to think he’s a bit of a fusspot,’ Mary admitted. ‘He was so carefree and fun when we first met, and now his mind is always on something else, I can just tell.’ She reached for the marmalade and carefully helped herself to a small amount, to leave enough for whoever sat at the table next. Nobody could slather it on their toast any more, the ingredients were too scarce. Sugar had been rationed since the start of the year and oranges had all but disappeared.

‘Well, he’s got an important job to do,’ Edith pointed out. She checked her watch. ‘As have we.’

Hastily Mary finished off the last of her breakfast. ‘I’d better go and restock my Gladstone bag. I didn’t get around to it last night, what with preparing to go out with Charles. I don’t want to run short of anything.’

Edith made a face of mock horror. ‘I should think not. And don’t so much as breathe such a thing in front of Gwen.’

Mary glanced hastily around, as if mentioning the name of their fearsome deputy superintendent was enough to conjure up her presence. ‘Heaven forfend. Right, I’m off. See you later.’

Edith grinned, although she knew that Gwen’s bark was worse than her bite. The older woman had been kindness itself when they’d first learnt the news about Harry. But that was a side of Gwen that few people saw. She would have been perfectly right to berate Mary if the young nurse had been mistaken enough to set off on her rounds without a properly stocked bag. Every district nurse relied upon this most vital piece of equipment, which contained everything she might need when visiting a patient’s house. It was no exaggeration to say that lives depended on it.

‘You’re up early.’

Edith turned around at the sound of a chair scraping beside her, and looked up into the steady blue eyes of her best friend, Alice Lake, who lowered her tall frame to sit at the vacant place at the table.

‘Couldn’t sleep for ages and then I woke up before the alarm,’ Edith admitted.

Alice nodded in sympathy as she set down her bowl of porridge. ‘Again,’ she said.

Edith shrugged. Alice was the only nurse who knew about her dreaded moments when she awoke thinking Harry was still alive and then remembered that he wasn’t. Yet she was getting better. At first the realisation would make her feel so sick that she couldn’t face breakfast, and would end up shaking with exhaustion by the end of her morning rounds. Now she could manage some toast and set off with something like her old energy, because she knew that neither Harry nor the rest of his family, who lived nearby, would have wanted her to fail in her chosen profession.

‘Who’s your first patient?’ Alice asked, knowing that the best way to help Edith was to concentrate on work.

‘Dennis,’ Edith replied. He was one of their favourites, a teenager with a tubercular hip who required regular visits, and whose life was one of discomfort at best, but who never complained. ‘He’s been pretty bright recently, and Dr Patcham thinks we might even be able to try him walking for short periods with crutches. I don’t want to rush him though. His leg muscles are wasted from lying in bed for so long.’

Alice beamed at the idea. ‘Imagine how happy his mother would be. I know she thought her son would never walk again.’

Edith agreed. ‘It would be a small miracle – but don’t tell anyone or it might jinx it. Anyway, I’d better go.’

‘Give them my best and tell them I’ll see them soon,’ Alice called, raising her teacup as Edith departed.

The sunlight flooded the corridor of the big old Victorian house as Edith strode along it, to pick up her own bag before setting off on her bicycle for the day. It was true that there was finally a ray of hope for young Dennis, and it was moments like that which had led her to do this job in the first place. There was a long way to go for him, and he might always have a limp; everything would be easier if he could leave his crowded street and move to somewhere with fresh air, but she might as well recommend him to fly to the moon. Besides, even the countryside was open to attack; areas around airfields had started to see enemy planes overhead and nowhere was guaranteed to be safe.

‘So you aren’t missing much, Harry Banham,’ she murmured to herself, carefully wedging the bulging leather bag into the bicycle basket. She knew she didn’t mean it, though. She would have given anything for him to be back with her, laughing with his friends, joking with his family, throwing his beloved little niece into the air and catching her before his mother could tell him off. She shook her head, and automatically checked that her dark wavy hair was secure under her cap. It was no use; he was gone, and she had work to do.