The Angels of Lovely Lane (22 page)

‘For you, maybe,’ said Dana. ‘Feels to me like the longest twelve weeks in my life, ever.’ She meant it.

The routine of the classroom had become more difficult as they entered their last week of training and the prospect of being set free on the wards for a month, to learn the more practical skills and to nurse real patients, came tantalizingly close.

‘I’m not sure whether I am nervous or excited,’ said Victoria. ‘I have a funny feeling in my tummy and I know I am not going to sleep tonight, no matter how much Horlicks Mrs Duffy forces down me.’

‘You will all be fine,’ said Lizzie, smiling. ‘Just as long as you all pass and none of you are sent to ward two and Sister Antrobus, you’ll survive.’

The girls had all heard the name Sister Antrobus. Her reputation was fearsome. It was legendary both in the school of nursing and on Lovely Lane. ‘Pick your faces up off the floor, nurses,’ Lizzie continued. ‘I have heard that so many girls have dropped out after being allocated to that ward, they aren’t going to place any more new nurses on ward two. They are going to save her for the hardened third years. I have a feeling it will be my placement before finals.’

She picked up her suitcase and began to hump it up the stairs. ‘My mother has sent me back with the most ginormous fruit cake. I’ll just unpack and then I’ll put it on the night drinks trolley, if any of you fancy a slice.’

Just as Lizzie turned the bend on the stairs, the door opened once more and this time the girls fell silent. Mrs Duffy stood in front of them and to their surprise she was accompanied by Sister Haycock and Sister Ryan. ‘Hello, Sister,’ they all said at once.

‘Evening, nurses,’ said Sister Haycock brightly. ‘I thought I would pop in to deliver the news. I remember what a dreadful time it is waiting for the results.’

No one spoke a word. Dana licked her lips. Victoria thought that if Sister Haycock didn’t get a move on, there was a chance she might faint. Beth beamed with a self-assured confidence.

‘Matron is responsible for the ward placements, and you have all done so well over the past twelve weeks that I thought I would like to break the news to you myself.’ Still no one spoke as Sister Haycock unbuttoned her coat and hung it on the hat stand.

‘Any chance of a cup of hot chocolate, Mrs Duffy? And maybe one of your biscuits,’ asked Sister Ryan. Her stomach always came first.

‘There is. Honestly, these nurses, a nervous wreck they all are. They’ve got me all of a dither, panicking all day they’ve been. ’Tis a mystery why Matron makes them wait until Sunday night for the results, is it not? Anyone would think they were awaiting a death sentence, not their first ward placements.’

‘I’ll put you all out of your misery in just a second,’ said Sister Haycock. ‘Nurse Harper, run and put the kettle on for Mrs Duffy. We shall all need a drink after this, if I’m not mistaken.’

Beth could not erase the smile from her face. She adored being given extra responsibility and had quickly become Mrs Duffy’s little helper. ‘I already have, Sister. It’s simmering now,’ she preened.

Undoing the knot of her green paisley headscarf and shaking the raindrops on to the floor, Sister Haycock laid the scarf over the mahogany hat stand and moved towards the hall fire.

‘Well, it looks as though no one is going to allow me to sit down until they know their fate, so here goes.’ There were sharp gasps from the girls as they grabbed hold of each other’s hands. Emily pulled the envelope out of her handbag while Beth scooped up a chair and slid it behind her and Celia, with a sickly grin, slipped one behind Sister Ryan. Beth had beaten her again and Celia was annoyed.

To make matters worse, Mrs Duffy gave Beth an approving smile from the doorway before turning her attention to Dana.

‘Nurse Brogan, have you been to mass today?’ she asked.

Dana blinked like a rabbit in the headlights. Sister Haycock opened the envelope and looked at Dana, waiting for her to reply before she began to read out the results. ‘Only, I have to write back to your mother tonight.’ Dana blushed with embarrassment until her face was the same colour as her hair. She wanted to scream. How could her mammy have interrupted this of all moments?

‘Yes, Mrs Duffy,’ she replied in an exasperated tone, and whispered to Pammy, ‘I knew my mother would find a way into Lovely Lane.’

Sister Haycock began to speak.

‘Nurses, I am absolutely delighted to inform you—’

Sister Ryan pushed a plate in front of the letter and cut her off. ‘Try one of these millionaire’s shortbreads,’ she said. ‘Mrs Duffy made them this afternoon as a special treat. They’re sublime. Go on, have one.’ Sister Ryan winked at Emily, but no one saw her as all eyes were fixed on the letter in Emily’s hand.

‘Oh, thank you. I don’t mind if I do.’ Emily reached out and took a shortbread from the plate. ‘Oh, yes. Mrs Duffy, they are delicious.’ Crumbs fell from the shortbread on to the letter as she nibbled at the biscuit and made a slight rattling sound as they hit the paper. ‘Can I have a hot chocolate too, please? It’s always such a treat to come here, isn’t it, Sister Ryan?’

‘Are you for real?’ This was from Pammy, who could contain herself no longer. Emily began to giggle.

‘I am, Nurse Tanner, and so are you, a real nurse. Every one of you passed your PTS, and Nurse Harper, you have won the course prize for attainment. You got top marks in the exam.’

Mrs Duffy appeared carrying a tray filled with small glasses of dark brown liquid.

‘I checked with Sister Haycock first and she said it was quite in order for a celebratory glass of sherry. It’s not always the case that everyone gets through. Isn’t that right, Sister? What a lovely night this is.’

Mrs Duffy placed the tray on the table.

‘Go on, help yourselves, you are all proper nurses now, fancy that.’

For the following ten minutes, the Lovely Lane home was filled with the sound of excited chatter, congratulations for Beth, and the clink of glasses as everyone tucked into the celebratory millionaire’s shortbread and the sweet sherry.

‘Well, now we have to see who has been placed where,’ said Emily at last, opening yet another envelope. ‘Ward one, Nurse Baker, female medical, Sister Prior. Ward two, Nurse Tanner, gynaecological, Sister Antrobus.’ There was a sharp intake of breath as the girls all turned to Pammy. None was paler than Sister Haycock herself, who looked as though she might faint.

‘But, Sister Haycock, Nurse Lewis said no new nurses would be placed on ward two because so many had left before...’ Pammy’s voice tailed away in despair.

Sister Ryan came to the rescue and saved her from having to finish the sentence.

‘Well, I’m quite sure I have no idea where Nurse Lewis got that idea from,’ she said. ‘These third years seem to think they know what colour bloomers I’m wearing these days. I will admit that there was some gossip about only third years being placed on ward two, but Matron has clearly rejected the idea.’ Just at that moment, the kettle whistled deafeningly. ‘Right, come on then, let’s away to the kitchen to hear the rest. Let’s not have the drinks late tonight. It’ll be an early night for all of you if you know what’s good for you.’ As ever, Sister Ryan was keen to finish the biscuits. ‘Next week will be one of the hardest of your life and we want you all to do well. Nursing is a vocation, not a job.’

Sister Haycock’s brow was furrowed and she appeared troubled. ‘That’s a very good idea, Sister Ryan.’

Mrs Duffy led the way out of the hall, talking to Sister Ryan as she went. ‘In my experience of looking after the probationers, Sister, there is always something that has brought each nurse through this door. An experience that makes them believe they are called to be a nurse in the first place.’

She looked across to Dana. ‘Not everyone can do the job, you know, Nurse Brogan. It takes a special kind of person. If I can give you any advice, it would be to hold on to that. To whatever it is that brought you here. Whatever difficulty you encounter, remember the reason why you chose your vocation in the first place. Come on now, drinks.’

The nurses milled en masse into the kitchen, except for Pammy, who looked as though she would fall over her own trembling bottom lip if she moved.

‘Come on now, Nurse Tanner,’ said Sister Haycock. ‘It’s only Sister Antrobus, not a firing squad. She’s not that bad.’

But Sister Haycock’s reassurances did not quite ring true. Pammy stood, terrified, with tears flooding in her eyes, the joy of having passed her PTS obliterated by the news that her placement was ward two with the dreaded Sister Antrobus. Emily wanted to put her arm round her shoulder and give her a hug, but she just could not. She was filled with anger at what Matron had done.

‘I have to go into the kitchen now,’ she said. ‘I need to let the others know their fate.’ She looked apologetically towards the kitchen door. Whichever ward the other girls were placed on, it would be a doddle compared to poor Nurse Tanner’s.

As they huddled around the list, Dana grinned when she read that she was to be placed on ward eight, male surgical.

‘Lucky you,’ said Pammy. ‘I would give anything to be on male surgical. They have charge nurses, not sisters, and Lizzie said they can be a right laugh.’

‘Oh, I almost forgot,’ said Sister Ryan. ‘Nurse Harper, here is a little prize for coming first.’ She handed an envelope to Beth, while Celia Forsyth bristled. She had expected the first place honour to be hers.

‘Well done you,’ she said to Beth, through gritted teeth.

‘It’s only a book token,’ said Beth. ‘You can have it if you want.’

‘No, don’t be silly. It’s all yours, fair and square.’ Celia thought Beth was being ridiculous, but as she was one of her few friends, she couldn’t say so. It wasn’t the book token Celia had wanted. It was the status, and the respect, that having come top in the PTS exam would have brought her. She turned to leave the kitchen, cocoa mug in hand, heading towards the stairs and her room.

‘Don’t worry about Sister Antrobus,’ she said, as she brushed past Dana and Pammy. ‘She only weeds out the students who aren’t cut out to be nurses. I’ve heard that she gets them packed off pretty quickly.’

Dana saw the tears of fear in Pammy’s eyes threaten to spill over. ‘Well in that case, you wouldn’t last five minutes on there, would you? So you’d better keep your opinion to yourself. Pammy will be just fine,’ she snapped.

‘Oh, shut up, Brogan,’ Celia barked back.

‘Steady on, Nurse Forsyth,’ said Beth, who was following her out. Beth looked embarrassed.

‘Nurse Harper isn’t as bad as you think,’ said Pammy. ‘She’s a bit of a stickler for the work and everything, but she’s not mean like Celia Forsyth. I reckon she may be feeling a bit lonely, thinking that she’s backed the wrong horse. I know I would, if I were her.’ They heard Celia’s voice boom down the stairwell.

‘If I were you, Tanner, I’d be wishing I could do another twelve weeks in PTS’ were Celia’s parting words as her bedroom door slammed.

‘Oh, blimey, Antrobus must be bad,’ said Pammy. ‘We will see each other every day, won’t we, Dana?’ she said, suddenly looking very young and scared. ‘We can let off steam on the way home, can’t we?’

Dana hugged her friend. ‘We can. We just have to make sure we don’t do it on the ward, that’s all. You’ll be fine. You just show her what you’re made of.’

‘We might be on different shifts,’ said Pammy. There was an air of despair about her and it caught in her voice. ‘I may not ever see you. We may hardly ever see each other.’

‘Don’t be daft, Pammy. Remember, it all starts tomorrow. We become real nurses for the first time. Don’t let anyone spoil that for you.’

Dana was not about to make the same mistake on her first day on the wards as she had made in the school, and so that night, before bed, she meticulously went through everything a dozen times. Yet, as she lay staring at her uniform hanging on the wardrobe door, her thoughts were not filled with what the following day would hold, but were full of Teddy. She had seen her doctor every day through the classroom window as he walked towards the main entrance of the hospital. He had no idea that she watched him. When she turned off her light at night he filled her thoughts, something she had confided to no one. Now, there was a chance, albeit a slim one, that one day soon she might bump into him on the wards, and she couldn’t wait for that moment to arrive. If she had known that that meeting was but a few hours away, she would probably not have slept at all.

The following morning the girls walked up to the hospital as usual, but when they reached the main entrance, they parted ways with shouts of good luck and plans to meet in the same place to walk back at the end of the day.

Dana’s day began in the office, listening to the day’s instructions and patient details, but her first report-taking was rudely interrupted by a phone call from Matron, just as the night staff nurse had finished handing over her report.

There was no ward sister on ward eight. It was run by two male charge nurses and neither of them was a favourite of Matron. She said, falsely, that their standards were lacking and that their manner towards both patients and nurses was overly familiar.

‘She just doesn’t like men!’ the charge nurse exclaimed, after he had almost slammed the phone in the office down following a conversation about the number of old newspapers stacked up in the dayroom, the flower vases which hadn’t been scrubbed properly and the general mess on his office desk. ‘Did she come up here before the day shift began?’ he asked the poor night staff nurse, who really couldn’t have cared less about the papers. It had been a long and hard night. She just wanted to get home to her bed.

‘She came in at seven. She has a bee in her bonnet about something today. Of course, it’s the new probationers’ first day on the wards, and she’s been a bit crazy about that, ever since she lost control.’

Just as the night staff nurse stood to leave, her colleague, who had remained on the ward while the day shift were all in the office taking report, popped her head around the door.

‘Charge Nurse, bed three, Mr Townsend, terminal prostate CA with metastases, he’s just gone,’ she said, an expression of sadness on her face. The charge nurse looked up and gave her a reassuring smile.