how i dealt with nursing in the war.

having increased my age by a year I started nursing june1st1939. It was ahospitalfor people who were sufferering from terminal illness. i was at church themorn ing war was declard ....we weretold thaatthe war had been ca
declared and almost at once the sirens went off the vicar told us to go home or to the shelter.I went b ack to the hospital and was soon told to start putting brown sticky tape on the windows in case of any bombing.
I started crying togohome to my mother but v ery soon told to act my age.except for the increase of service men nothing altered. In Febuary I changed hospitalsand started my training at a hospital in North London
it was a veryhot summer there did not seem to be accare in the world...then the blitz startedandallwas let loose.The hospital had patients from twolarger london hospitals and we were very busyafter a weekthe hospital had been hit by several fire bombe andon ehigh explosive bomb. The nurses were sent to the shelters to sleep asit was safer..
This was not liked and although we should haave stayed in went off to a near bypub The Sussex Arms as they had dances there everynight and it was alsoaair raid station and therefore had theorange light warning them of enemy aircraftcoming into that area.This enabled us nurses toreturn tothe hospital and be ready to go on duty if needed and it often was.Thelocal airmen did notlike this and would ask us if we were nurses which we generally denied only to have admit itif thecallcame It was a completly different life then nostreetlights buses few andfar between and we had to be carefulif you were shinning a torch. When in the west end ofLondon we uses to tell amazinglies to , as we thought impress the other sex..
It wasquiteusualto go toa dance with one boy make a date with another and then finallycome home withyet another. Never was there any shortage of the opposit sex Theyembroidered what they did and we did likewise. Yet we all fought hard andplayed hard. I finished my training andwas married to an aiorforce serguant.my clothes were mostly hand made from other olddresses or were sec0ond hand. You only had somany clothing coupons and certainlynot eniough for many new utems.I manaaged toget a parachute which I undid and then made up for my nightdress and underwear. Black out material was alsocoupon free and this I used tomafea verypretty( I thought) dressing gown allembroiderd. Formyweddion g we saved food coupons to make for the wedding day food.The wedding cake was just fruit with a carboardcover to make it like a real wedding cake.
I went to Edinburougth for my honeymoon and then lived in scotland for a year till my husband was promted and we thenlived in rooms in Yorkshire till nearly theend of the war

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