Frontline Nurses On Duty by Holly Green

Author:Holly Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Chapter 12

To Leo, the summer at Kragujevac took on an almost idyllic quality. It was true that the work she was doing was very much the same as the work at Lamarck. Most of the patients were typhus cases and required the same intensive care, but there was something about the surroundings that lifted the spirit. In the distance there were mountains, covered in forests of oak and beech and maple. In the valleys, wheat and oats were ripening and as the summer progressed the trees in the orchards bent under the weight of plums and vines clothed the hillsides in between. Above all, she had a sense of homecoming. It was a comfort to hear Serbian spoken again and in the evenings the men who were convalescing sat around the campfire and the inevitable gusla was produced and the old songs sung. And then, those who were well enough would get to their feet and form a circle, linking arms for the solemn steps of the kolo. Leo knew that some of her colleagues groaned when they heard the drone of the gusla but to her it possessed a romance that no other music could evoke, bringing back evenings around the fire at Adrianople when she was still masquerading as an aide-de-camp to Colonel ‘Sasha’ Malkovic.

Several times she was tempted, when men were being discharged to go back to their units, to ask them to carry a letter, or perhaps to deliver a message. It was on the tip of her tongue to say, ‘If you happen to meet Colonel Malkovic, tell him that Leo is here, working as a nurse, and sends her best wishes.’ But she never spoke the words. She could not explain to herself what restrained her. Partly it was an honourable reticence, a feeling that he had enough to think about without concerning himself with her presence. Partly it was a much less noble fear that his response would be to tell her to go home, or to disclaim any further connection – or that there would be no response at all. Overlying all this was a sense that, if fate intended them to meet, it would somehow occur without her intervention, so all she had to do was wait.

Meanwhile, there was plenty to occupy her time. Reveille was at 5.30 a.m. so that the heavy work of carrying water and cleaning could be done before the heat of the day. Then there were patients to be bathed and dressings to be done before lunch at 11.30. Tea was a 4 pm, supper at 6.30 and all lights were out by 9.30.

Every morning Leo anointed herself from head to toe with paraffin to deter the lice that carried the typhus infection and put on protective overalls and a bathing cap. Every new patient was stripped, washed and coated with paraffin, too, and his clothes were burned before he was give a clean nightshirt and tucked up between clean sheets. All the nurses had all

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