Sacred Heart
Hospital,
Obudu,
Ogoja
Province,
Nigeria.
Sun 11th Nov, 1954
Comdt. & Mrs S. Hayes,
6 Calderwood Road,
Drumcondra,
Dublin.
My dear Comdt. & Mrs Hayes,
I often think of you & wonder
how you're getting on so I hope you'll have time to write me all the news. How is Thérese & how is she getting on at
school? It will soon be Christmas
holidays again. I suppose you've got
quite blasé about your new school now Mrs H.
It must be a great comfort to be into it. I haven't much news from this end. I was pleased to hear of Noreen's engagement
to Paul. You always liked him didn't
you? How do you think Mammy is keeping,
or do you meet at all since the move to Dollymount Rd?!
The hospital is full here &
the overflow are on the verandah this past week. We had a lot of abnormal midwifery this
week! There was a hysterectomy, 3
forceps and another case. We had 2 sets
of twins born about 2 wks ago – they were lovely little things.
I was out 'fishing' near here the
other evening (first & last time), Comdt. Hayes you'll be interested to
know, but it wasn't the kind of fishing you'd approve of & I lodged my
disapproval & took no hand, act or part in it when I knew what was
happening!! They set a piece of
detonation or something like that on the bait (sausage) & put it in the
river, then it went off with a bang & they swam out & picked up the
dazed fish & we don't know the name of the fish.
I was out for a little walk round the compound with a sister the other evening just as it was dark. We had a torch which we just flashed on occasionally as it wasn't much good. Mine flashed on once just in time to stop dead as a big grey snake wriggled past up on the road right where our next steps would have been.
I give some lectures to the nurses in the evenings & it’s desperate trying to make them understand – last evening we were having a recap of the lecture before when I had mentioned & wrote on the board what 'medial to' and 'lateral to' meant – everybody understood, until I asked what bones we had in the arm “There's the medial (prounounced as in medical) bone & the bone called 'lateral bone'.
I was out for a little walk round the compound with a sister the other evening just as it was dark. We had a torch which we just flashed on occasionally as it wasn't much good. Mine flashed on once just in time to stop dead as a big grey snake wriggled past up on the road right where our next steps would have been.
I give some lectures to the nurses in the evenings & it’s desperate trying to make them understand – last evening we were having a recap of the lecture before when I had mentioned & wrote on the board what 'medial to' and 'lateral to' meant – everybody understood, until I asked what bones we had in the arm “There's the medial (prounounced as in medical) bone & the bone called 'lateral bone'.
My favourite report in the night
book is “All the others slept cosily with normal temperatures” One of the house girls, who serves at table
forgot a serving spoon & it suddenly dawned on her & she said - “Oh!
the carry-put spoon” it's a pretty good name really. We had a Christian marriage this morning –
The bride wore white over a roaring pink slip which shone through and the groom
wore pink socks, brown show, brown suit & whipped out an emerald green
duster – or hankie embroidered in red wool, v. proudly to kneel on!
Love to all,
Emily
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